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TOMMY ATKINS AT WAR 



it 



The English soldier is the best 
trained soldier in the world. The Eng- 
lish soldier's fire is ten thousand times 
worse than hell. If we could only beat 
the English it would be well for us, but 
I am afraid we shall never be able to 
beat these English devils." 
From a letter found on a German officer. 



TOMMY ATKINS 
AT WAR 

AS TOLD IN HIS OWN LETTERS 



BY 
JAMES A. KILPATRICK 



NEW YORK 

McBRIDE, NAST & COMPANY 
1914 



s ^ 



Copyright, I914, by 
McBride, Nast & Co. 



Published November, 1914 

NOV 18 1914 

©Cf.A888452 



NOTE 

This little book is the soldier's story of the 
war, with all his vivid and intimate impressions 
of life on the great battlefields of Europe. It 
is illustrated by passages from his letters, in 
which he describes not only the grim realities, 
but the chivalry, humanity and exaltation of 
battle. For the use of these passages the author 
is indebted to the courtesy and generosity of 
the editors of all the leading London and 
provincial newspapers, to whom he gratefully 
acknowledges his obligations. 

J. A. K. 



CONTENTS 



I Off to the Front 



II Sensations under Fire . . . 

III Humor in the Trenches . . 

IV The Man with the Bayonet . 
V Cavalry Exploits .... 

VI With the Highlanders 

VII The Intrepid Irish .... 

VIII ''A First-Class Fighting Man 

IX Officers and Gentlemen . 

X Brothers in Arms .... 

XI Atkins and the Enemy 

XII The War in the Air . 

XIII Tommy and his Rations 



9 
i8 

30 

39 
46 

55 
64 

82 

91 
100 

112 

121 



TOMMY ATKINS 

AT WAR 



I 



OFF TO THE FRONT 

^*'J"T is my Royal and Imperial Command 
that you concentrate your energies, for 
the immediate present upon one single 
purpose, and that is that you address all your 
skill and all the valor of my soldiers to ex- 
terminate first the treacherous English and 
walk over General French's contemptible little 
army." * 

While this Imperial Command of the Kaiser 
was being written, Atkins, innocent of the 
fate decreed for him, was well on his way to 
the front, full of exuberant spirits, and singing 
as he went, " It's a long way to Tipperary/' 
In his pocket was the message from Lord 
Kitchener which Atkins believes to be the 

* Extract from The Times report of the German 
Emperor's Army Orders, dated Headquarters, Aix-la- 
Chapelle, August 19th, 1914. 

9 



lo TOMMY ATKINS AT WAR 

whole duty of a soldier: " Be brave, be kind, 
courteous (but nothing more than courteous) 
to women, and look upon looting as a dis- 
graceful act." 

Troopship after troopship had crossed the 
Channel carrying Sir John French's little 
army to the Continent, while the boasted 
German fleet, impotent to menace the safety 
of our transports, lay helpless — - bottled up, to 
quote Mr. Asquith's phrase, " in the inglorious 
seclusion of their own ports." 

Never before had a British Expeditionary 
Force been organized, equipped and despatched 
so swiftly for service in the field. The ener- 
gies of the War Office had long been applied 
to the creation of a small but highly efficient 
striking force ready for instant action. And 
now the time for action had come. The force 
was ready. From the harbors the troopships 
steamed away, their decks crowded with 
cheery soldiers, their flags waving a proud 
challenge to any disputant of Britain's com- 
mand of the sea. 

The expedition was carried out as if by 
magic. For a few brief days the nation en- 
dured with patience its self-imposed silence. 
In the newspapers were no brave columns of 
farewell scenes, no exultant send-off greetings, 
no stirring pictures of troopships passing out 



OFF TO THE FRONT ii 

into the night. All was silence, the silence of 
a nation preparing for the " iron sacrifice," as 
Kipling calls it, of a devastating war. Then 
suddenly the silence was broken, and across 
the Channel was flashed the news that the 
troops had been safely landed, and were only 
waiting orders to throw themselves upon the 
German brigands who had broken the sacred 
peace of Europe. 

And so the scene changes to France and 
Belgium. Tommy Atkins is on his way to 
the Front. He has already begun to send 
home some of those gallant letters that throb 
throughout the pages of this book. If he felt 
the absence of the stimulating send-off, neces- 
sitated by official caution and the exigencies 
of a European war, he at least had the new 
joy of a welcome on foreign soil. It is diffi- 
cult to find words with the right quality in 
them to express the feelings aroused in our 
men by their reception, or the exquisite grati- 
tude felt by the Franco-Belgian people. They 
welcomed the British troops as their deliverers, 

" The first person to meet us in France," 
writes a British officer, " was the pilot, and 
the first intimation of his presence was a huge 
voice in the darkness, which roared out ' A 
has Guillaume. Eep, eep, 'ooray ! ' " As 
transport after transport sailed into Boulogne, 



12 TOMMY ATKINS AT WAR 

and regiment after regiment landed, the popu- 
lation went into ecstasies of delight. Through 
the narrow streets of the old town the sol- 
diers marched, singing, whistling, and cheer- 
ing, with a wave of their caps to the women 
and a kiss wafted to the children (but not 
only to the children!) on the route. As they 
swept along, their happy faces and gallant 
bearing struck deep into the emotions of the 
spectators. " What brave fellows, to go into 
battle laughing ! " exclaimed one old woman, 
whose own sons had been called to the army 
of the Republic. 

It was strange to hear the pipes of the 
Highlanders skirl shrilly through old Bou- 
logne, and to catch the sound of English voices 
in the clarion notes of the " Marseillaise," but, 
strangest of all to French ears, to listen to 
that new battle-cry, " Are we down-hearted? '' 
followed by the unanswerable " No — o — o ! " 
of every regiment. And then the lilt of that 
new marching song to which Tommy Atkins 
has given immortality : — 

"IT'S A LONG, LONG WAY TO TIPPERARY"* 

Up to mighty London came an Irishman one day; 
As the streets are paved with gold, sure ev'ry one was 

gay> 

* Copyright Chappell & Co., Ltd., 41 East 34th St., 
New York. 



OFF TO THE FRONT 13 

Singing songs of Piccadilly, Strand and Leicester 

Square, 
Till Paddy got excited, then he shouted to them there: 

CHORUS 

It's a long way to Tipperary, 

It's a long way to go; 
It's a long way to Tipperary, 

To the sweetest girl I know! 
Good-by Piccadilly, 

Farewell Leicester Square. 
It's a long, long way to Tipperary, 

But my heart's right there 1 
It's a' there! 

Paddy wrote a letter to his Irish Molly O', 

Saying, " Should you not receive it, write and let me 

know ! 
If I make mistakes in spelling, Molly dear," said he, 
" Remember it's the pen that's bad, don't lay the blame 

on me." 

(Chorus) 

Molly wrote a neat reply to Irish Paddy O', 
Saying, " Mike Maloney wants to marry me, and so 
Leave the Strand and Piccadilly, or you'll be to blame. 
For love has fairly drove me silly — hoping you're the 
same ! " 

(Chorus) 

It may seem odd that the soldier should care 
so little for martial songs, or the songs that 
are ostensibly written for him; but that is not 
the fault of Tommy Atkins. Lyric poets 
don't give him what he calls " the stuff." He 
doesn't get it even from Kipling; Thomas 



14 TOMMY ATKINS AT WAR 

Hardy's " Song of the Soldiers " leaves him 
cold. He wants no epic stanzas, no heroic 
periods. What he asks for is something simple 
and romantic, something about a girl, and 
home, and the lights of London — that goes 
with a swing in the march and awakens tender 
memories when the lilt of it is wafted at night 
along the trenches. 

And so " Tipperary " has gone with the 
troops into the great European battlefields, and 
has echoed along the white roads and over the 
green fields of France and Belgium. 

On the way to the front the progress of our 
soldiers was made one long fete : it was " roses, 
roses, all the way." In a letter published in 
The Times, an artillery officer thus describes 
it: 

"As to the reception we have met with 
moving across country it has been simply won- 
derful and most affecting. We travel entirely 
by motor transport, and it has been flowers 
all the way. One long procession of accla- 
mation. By the wayside and through the vil- 
lages, men, women, and children cheer us on 
with the greatest enthusiasm, and every one 
wants to give us something. They strip the 
flower gardens, and the cars look like carnival 
carriages. They pelt us with fruit, cigarettes, 
chocolate, bread — anything and everything. 



OFF TO THE FRONT 15 

It is simply impossible to convey an impres- 
sion of it all. Yesterday my own car had 
to stop in a town for petrol. In a moment 
there must have been a couple of hundred peo- 
ple round clamoring; autograph albums were 
thrust in front of me; a perfect dehrium. 
In another town I had to stop for an hour, 
and took the opportunity to do some shopping. 
I wanted some motor goggles, an eye-bath, 
some boracic, provisions, etc. They would 
not let me pay for a single thing — and there 
was lunch and drinks as well. The further 
we go the more enthusiastic is the greeting. 
What it will be like at the end of the war one 
cannot attempt to guess." 

Similar tributes to the kindness of the 
French and Belgians are given by the men. 
A private in the Yorkshire Light Infantry — 
the first British regiment to go into action in 
this war — tells of the joy of the French peo- 
ple. " You ought to have seen them," he 
writes. " They were overcome with delight, 
and didn't half cheer us ! The worst of it was 
we could not understand their talking. When 
we crossed the Franco-Belgian frontier, there 
was a vast crowd of Belgians waiting for us. 
Our first greeting was the big Union Jack, 
and on the other side was a huge canvas with 
the words * Welcome to our British Comrades.' 



i6 TOMMY ATKINS AT WAR 

The Belgians would have given us anything; 
they even tore the sheets off their beds for us 
to wipe our faces with." Another Tommy 
tells of the eager crowds turning out to give 
our troops "cigars, cigarettes, sweets, fruits, 
wines, anything we want," and the girls 
" linking their arms in ours, and stripping us 
of our badges and buttons as souvenirs." 

Then there is the other side of the picture, 
when the first battles had been fought and the 
strategic retreat had begun. No praise could 
be too high for the chivalry and humanity of 
our soldiers in these dark days. They were 
almost worshiped by the people wherever they 
went. 

Some of the earliest letters from the soldiers 
present distressing pictures of the poor, driven 
refugees, fleeing from their homes at the ap- 
proach of the Germans, who carry ruin and 
desolation wherever they go. "It is pitiful, 
pitiful," says one writer; "you simply can't 
hold back your tears." Others disclose our 
sympathetic soldier-men sharing their rations 
with the starving fugitives and carrying the 
children on their shoulders so that the weary 
mothers may not fall by the way. " Be in- 
variably courteous, considerate, and kind " 
were Lord Kitchener's words to the Army, 
and these qualities no less than valor will al- 



OFF TO THE FRONT 17 

ways be linked with Tommy Atkins' name in 
the memories of the French and Belgian peo- 
ple. 

They will never forget the happy spick-and- 
span soldiers who sang as they stepped ashore 
from the troopships at Boulogne and Havre, 
eager to reach the fighting line. These men 
have fought valiantly, desperately, since then, 
but their spirits are as high as ever, and their 
songs still ring down the depleted ranks as the 
war-stained regiments swing along from battle 
to battle on the dusty road to Victory. 



i8 TOMMY ATKINS AT WAR 



II 

SENSATIONS UNDER FIRE 

IT is said of Sir John French that, on his 
own admission, he has " never done any- 
thing worth doing without having to 
screw himself up to it." There is no hint here 
of practical fear, which the hardened soldier, 
the fighting man, rarely experiences; but of 
the moral and mental conflict which precedes 
the assumption of sovereign duties and high 
commands. Every man who goes into battle 
has this need. He requires the moral prepara- 
tion of knowing why he is fighting, and what 
he is fighting for. In the present war. Lord 
Kitchener's fine message to every soldier in 
the Expeditionary Force made this screwing- 
up process easy. But to men going under fire 
for the first time some personal preparation is 
also necessary to combat the ordinary physical 
terror of the battlefield. 

Soldiers are not accustomed to self -analysis. 
They are mainly men of action, and are sup- 



SENSATIONS UNDER FIRE 19 

posed to lack the contemplative vision. That 
was the old behef. This war, however, which 
has shattered so many accepted ideas, has de- 
stroyed that conviction too. Nothing is more 
surprising than the revelation o£ their feel- 
ings disclosed in the soldiers' letters. They 
are the most intimate of human documents. 
Here and there a hint is given of the appre- 
hension with which the men go into action, 
unspoken fears of how they will behave under 
fire, the uncertainty of complete mastery over 
themselves, brief doubts of their ability to 
stand up to this new and sublime ordeal of 
death. 

Rarely, however, do the men allow these ap- 
prehensions to depress or disturb them. 
Throughout the earliest letters from the front 
the one pervading desire was eagerness for 
battle — a wild impatience to get the first great 
test of their courage over, to feel their feet, 
obtain command of themselves. 

" We were all eager for scalps," writes one 
of the Royal Engineers, " and I took the cap, 
sword, and lance of a Uhlan I shot through 
the chest." An artilleryman says a gunner 
in his battery was " so anxious to see the en- 
emy," that he jumped up to look, and got 
his leg shot away. Others tell of the intense 
curiosity of the young soldiers to see every- 



20 TOMMY ATKINS AT WAR 

thing that is going on, of their reckless neglect 
of cover, and of the difficulty of holding them 
back when they see a comrade fall. " In 
spite of orders, some of my men actually 
charged a machine gun," an officer related. 
After the first baptism of fire any lingering 
fear is dispelled. " I don't think we were ever 
afraid at all," says another soldier, " but we 
got into action so quickly that we hadn't time 
to think about it." " Habit soon overcomes 
the first instinctive fear," writes a third, " and 
then the struggle is always palpitating." 

Of course, the fighting affects men in differ- 
ent ways. Some see the ugliness, the horror 
of it all, grow sick at the sight, and suffer 
from nausea. Others, seeing deeper signifi- 
cance in this desolation of life, realize the 
wickedness and waste of it; as one Highlander 
expresses it : " Being out there, and seeing 
what we see, makes us feel religious." But 
the majority of the men have the instinct for 
fighting, quickly adapt themselves to war con- 
ditions, and enter with zest into the joy of 
battle. These happy warriors are the men 
who laugh, and sing, and jest in the trenches. 
They take a strangely intimate pleasure in the 
danger around them, and when they fall they 
die like Mr. Julian Smith of the Intelligence 
Department, declaring that they " loved the 



SENSATIONS UNDER FIRE 21 

fighting." All the wounded beg the doctors 
and nurses to hurry up and let them return to 
the front. " I was enjoying it until I was 
put under," writes Lance-Corporal Leslie, R.E. 
" I must get back and have another go at 
them," says Private J. Roe, of the Manches- 
ters. And so on, letter after letter expressing 
impatience to get into the firing line. 

The artillery is what harasses the men most. 
They soon developed a contempt for German 
rifle fire, and it became a very persistent joke 
in the trenches. But nearly all agree that Ger- 
man artillery is " hell let loose." That is what 
the enemy intended it to be, but they did not 
reckon upon the terrors of Hades making so 
small an impression upon the British soldier. 
There is an illuminating passage in an official 
statement issued from the General Headquar- 
ters : 

" The object of the great proportion of artil- 
lery the Germans employ is to beat down the 
resistance of their enemy by a concentrated 
and prolonged fire, and to shatter their nerve 
with high explosives before the infantry at- 
tack is launched. They seem to have relied 
on doing this with us ; but they have not done 
so, though it has taken them several costly 
experiments to discover this fact. From the 
statements of prisoners, indeed, it appears that 



22 TOMMY ATKINS AT WAR 

they have been greatly disappointed by the 
moral effect produced by their heavy guns, 
which, despite the actual losses inflicted, has 
not been at all commensurate with the colossal 
expenditure of ammunition which has really 
been wasted. By this it is not implied that 
their artillery fire is not good. It is more than 
good; it is excellent. But the British soldier 
is a difficult person to impress or depress, even 
by immense shells filled with high explosives 
which detonate with terrific violence and form 
craters large enough to act as graves for five 
horses. The German howitzer shells are 8 to 
9 inches in caliber, and on impact they send 
up columns of greasy black smoke. On ac- 
count of this they are irreverently dubbed 
* Coal-boxes,' * Black Marias,' or * Jack John- 
sons ' by the soldiers. Men who take things 
in this spirit, are, it seems, likely to throw out 
the calculations based on the loss of moral so 
carefully framed by the German military phi- 
losophers." 

Every word of this admirable official mes- 
sage is borne out by the men's own version of 
their experiences of artillery fire. " At first 
the din is terrific, and you feel as if your 
ears would burst and the teeth fall out of 
your head," writes one of the West Kents, 
" but, of course, you can get used to anything, 



SENSATIONS UNDER FIRE 23 

and our artillerymen give them a bit of hell 
back, I can tell you." " The sensation of find- 
ing myself among screaming shells was all 
new to me," says Corporal Butlin, Lancashire 
Fusiliers, " but after the first terrible moments, 
which were enough to unnerve anybody, I be- 
came used to the situation. Afterwards the 
din had no effect upon me." And describing 
an artillery duel a gunner declares : " It was 
butcher's work. We just rained shells on the 
Germans until we were deaf and choking. I 
don't think a gun on their position could have 
sold for old iron after we had finished, and the 
German gunners would be just odd pieces of 
clothing and bits of accouterment. It seems 
* swanky ' to say so, but once you get over the 
first shock you go on chewing biscuits and to- 
bacco when the shells are bursting all round. 
You don't seem to mind it any more than 
smoking in a hailstorm." 

Smoking is the great consolation of the sol- 
diers. They smoke whenever they can, and 
the soothing cigarette is their best friend in 
the trenches. " We can go through anything 
so long as we have tobacco," is a passage from 
a soldier's letter; and this is the burden of 
nearly all the messages from the front. " The 
fight was pretty hot while it lasted, but we 
were all as cool as Liffy water, and smoked 



24 TOMMY ATKINS AT WAR 

cigarettes while the shells shrieked blue mur- 
der over our heads/' is an Irishman's account 
of the effect of the big German guns. 

The noise of battle — especially the roar of 
artillery — is described in several letters. " It 
is like standing in a railway station with heavy 
expresses constantily tearing through/' is an 
officer's impression of it. A wounded Gordon 
Highlander dismisses it as no more terrible 
than a bad thunderstorm : " You get the 
same din and the big flashes of light in front 
of you, and now and then the chance of being 
knocked over by a bullet or piece of shell, just 
as you might be struck by lightning." That 
is the real philosophy of the soldier. " After 
all, we are may-be as safe here as you are in 
Piccadilly," says another; and when men 
have come unhurt out of infinite danger they 
grow sublimely fatalistic and cheerful. An 
officer in the Cavalry Division, for instance, 
writes : " I am coming back all right, never 
fear. Have been in such tight corners and 
under such fire that if I were meant to go I 
should have gone by now, I'm sure." And it 
is the same with the men. " Having gone 
through six battles without a scratch," says 
Private A. Sunderland, of Bolton, " I thought 
I would never be hit." Later on, however, 
he was wounded. 



SENSATIONS UNDER FIRE 25 

Though the artillery fire has proved most 
destructive to all ranks, by far the worst ordeal 
of the troops was the long retreat in the early 
stages of the war. It exhausted and exas- 
perated the men. They grew angry and im- 
patient. None but the best troops in the 
world, with a profound belief in the judgment 
and valor of their officers, could have stood 
up against it. A statement by a driver of the 
Royal Field Artillery, published in the Even- 
ing News, gives a vivid impression of how the 
men felt. " I have no clear notion of the order 
of events in the long retreat," he says; "it 
was a nightmare, like being seized by a mad- 
man after coming out of a serious illness and 
forced towards the edge of a precipice." The 
constant marching, the want of sleep, the rest- 
less and (as it sometimes seemed to the men) 
purposeless backward movement night and day 
drove them into a fury. The intensity of the 
warfare, the fierce pressure upon the mental 
and physical powers of endurance, might well 
have exercised a mischievous effect upon the 
men. Instead, however, it only brought out 
their finest qualities. 

In an able article in Blackwood's Magazine, 
on " Moral Qualities in War," Major C. A. L. 
Yate, of the King's Own Yorkshire Light In- 
fantry, dealt with the " intensity " of the war 



26 TOMMY ATKINS AT WAR 

strain, of which he himself had acute expe- 
rience. *^ Under such conditions," he wrote, 
" marksmen may achieve no more than the 
most erratic shots; the smartest corps may 
quickly degenerate into a rabble; the easiest 
tasks will often appear impossible. An army 
can weather trials such as those just depicted 
only if it be collectively considered in that 
healthy state of mind which the term moral 
implies." It is just that moral which the 
British Expeditionary Force has been proved 
to possess in so rich a measure, and' which must 
belong to all good soldiers in these days of 
nerve-shattering war. 

Little touches of pathos are not wanting in 
the scenes pictured in the soldiers' letters, and 
they bring an element of humanity into the 
cold, well-ordered, practical business of war. 
Men who will meet any personal danger with- 
out flinching often find the mists floating 
across their eyes when a comrade is struck 
down at their side. Private Plant, Manchester 
Regiment, tells how his pal was eating a bit of 
bread and cheese when he was knocked over: 
" Poor chap, he just managed to ask me to 
tell his missus." " War is rotten when you 
see your best pal curl up at your feet," com- 
ments another. " One of our chaps got hit 
in the face with a shrapnel bullet," Private 



SENSATIONS UNDER FIRE 27 

Sidney Smith, First Warwickshires, relates. 
"^Hurt, Bill?' I said to him. 'Good luck 
to the old regiment/ says he. Then he rolled 
over on his back." " Partings of this kind are 
sad enough," says an Irish Dragoon, " but 
we've just got to sigh and get used to it." 

Their own injuries and sufferings don't seem 
to worry them much. The sensation of get- 
ting wounded is simply told. One man, shot 
through the arm, felt " only a bit of a sting, 
nothing particular. Just like a sharp needle 
going into me. I thought it was nothing till 
my rifle dropped out of my hand, and my arm 
fell. Rotten luck." That is the feeling of a 
clean bullet wound. Shrapnel, however, hurts 
— " hurts pretty badly/' Tommy says. And 
the lance and the bayonet make ugly gashes. 
In sensitive men, however, the continuous 
shell-fire produces effects that are often as se- 
rious as wounds, " Some," says Mr. Geoffrey 
Young, the Daily News and Leader corre- 
spondent, " suffer from a curious aphasia, some 
get dazed and speechless, some deafened " ; but 
of course their recovery is fairly rapid, and 
the German " Black Marias " soon exhaust 
their terrors. A man may lose his memory 
and have but a hazy idea of the day of the 
week or the hour of the day, but Tommy still 
keeps his nerve, and after his first experience 



28 TOMMY ATKINS AT WAR 

of the enemy's fire, to quote his own words, 
" doesn't care one d about the danger." 

As showing the general feeHng of the edu- 
cated soldier, independent altogether of his na- 
tionality, it is worth quoting two other expe- 
riences, both Russian. Mr. Stephen Graham 
in the Times recites the sensations of a 3^oung 
Russian officer. " The feeling under fire at first 
is unpleasant," he admits, " but after a while 
it becomes even exhilarating. One feels an 
extraordinary freedom in the midst of death." 
The following is a quotation from a soldier's 
letter sent by Mr. H. Williams, the Daily 
Chronicle correspondent at Petrograd : " One 
talks of hell fire on the battlefield, but I assure 
you it makes no more impression on me now 
than the tooting of motors. Habit is every- 
thing, especially in war, where all the logic 
and psychology of one's actions are the exact 
reverse of a civilian's. . . . The whole sensa- 
tion of fear is atrophied. We don't care a 
farthing for our Hves. . . . We don't think of 
danger. In this new frame of mind we sim- 
ply go and do the perfectly normal, natural 
things that you call heroism." 

When the heroic things are done and there 
comes a lull in the fighting, it is sweet to sink 
down in the trenches worn out, exhausted, un- 
utterly drowsy, and snatch a brief unconscious 



SENSATIONS UNDER FIRE 29 

hour of sleep. Some of the men fall asleep 
with the rifles still hot in their hands, their 
heads resting on the barrels. Magnificently as 
they endure fatigue, there comes a time when 
the strain is intolerable, and, *' beat to the 
world," as one officer describes it, they often 
sink into profound sleep, like horses, standing. 
At these times it seems as if nothing could 
wake them. Shrapnel may thunder around 
them in vain; they never move a muscle. In 
Mr. Stephen Crane's fine phrase, they " sleep 
the brave sleep of wearied men." 



30 TOMMY ATKINS AT WAR 



III 
HUMOR IN THE TRENCHES 

ONE of the most surprising of the many 
revelations of this war has been that 
of the gaiety, humor, and good nature 
of the British soldier. All the correspondents, 
English and French, remark upon it. A new 
Tommy Atkins has arisen, whose cheery laugh 
and joke and music-hall song have enlivened 
not only the long, weary, exhausting marches, 
but even the grim and unnerving hours in the 
trenches. Theirs was not the excitement of 
men going into battle, nervous and uncertain 
of their behavior under fire ; it was rather that 
of light-hearted first-nighters waiting in the 
queue to witness some new and popular drama. 
" A party of the King's Own," writes Sap- 
per Mugridge of the Royal Engineers, " went 
into their first action shouting ' Early doors 
this way ! Early doors, ninepence ! ' " *^ The 
Kaiser's crush " is the description given by a 
sergeant of the Coldstream Guards as he 



HUMOR IN THE TRENCHES 31 

watched a dense mass of Germans emerging 
to the attack from a wood, and prepared to 
meet them with the bayonet. When first the 
fierce German searchHghts were turned on the 
British lines a little cockney in the Middlesex 
Regiment exclaimed to his comrade : " Lord, 
Bill, it's just like a play, an' us in the lime- 
light " ; and as the artillery fusillade passed 
over their heads, and a great ironical cheer rose 
from the British trenches, he added : " But 
it's the Kaiser wot's gettin' the bird." 

Many of the wounded who have been in- 
valided home were asked whether this humor 
in the trenches is the real thing, or only an 
affected drollery to conceal the emotions the 
men feel in the face of death; but they all 
declare that it is quite spontaneous. One old 
soldier, well accustomed to being under fire, 
freely admitted that he had never been with 
such a cheery and courageous lot of young- 
sters in his life. " They take everything that 
comes to them as * all in the game,' " he said, 
" and nothing could now damp their spirits." 

Songs, cards and jokes fill up the waiting 
hours in the trenches; under fire, indeed, the 
wit seems to become sharpest. A corporal in 
the Motor Cycle Section of the Royal Engi- 
neers writes : " At first the German artillery 
was rotten. Three batteries bombarded an en- 



32 TOMMY ATKINS AT WAR 

trenched British battalion for two hours and 
only seven men were killed. The noise was 
simply deafening, but so little effect had the 
fire that the men shouted with laughter and 
held their caps up on the end of their rifles 
to give the German gunners a bit of encour- 
agement." The same spirit of raillery is 
spoken of by a Seaforth Highlander, who says 
one of the Wiltshires stuck out in the trenches 
a tin can on which was the notice " Business 
as Usual.'' As, however, it gave the enemy 
too good a target he was cheerily asked to 
" take the blooming thing in again," and in so 
doing he was wounded twice. 

" The liveliest Sunday I ever spent " is how 
Private P. Case, Liverpool Regiment, describes 
the fighting at Mons. " It was a glorious 
time," writes Bandsman Wall, Connaught 
Rangers ; " we had nothing to do but shoot the 
Germans as they came up, just like knocking 
dolls down at the fair ground." " A very 
pleasant morning in the trenches," remarks one 
of the Ofiicers' Special Reserve; and another 
writer, after being in several engagements, says, 
" This is really the best summer holiday I've 
ever had." 

Nothing could excel the coolness of the men 
under fire. With a hail of bullets and shells 
raining about them they sing and jest with 



HUMOR IN THE TRENCHES 33 

each other unconcernedly. Wiping the dust 
of battle from his face and loading up for an- 
other shot, a Highlander will break forth into 
one of Harry Lauder's songs: 

" It's a wee deoch an' doruis, 
Jist a wee drap, that's a'," 

and with a laugh some English Tommies will 
make a dash at the line " a braw, bricht, min- 
licht nicht," with ludicrous consequences to the 
pronunciation! According to "Joe/' of the 
2nd Royal Scots, the favorite songs in the 
trenches or round the camp-fire are " Never 
Mind," and " The Last Boat is leaving for 
Home." " Hitchy Koo " is another favorite, 
and was being sung in the midst of a German 
attack. " One man near me was wounded," 
says a comrade, " but he sang the chorus to the 
finish." 

It is remarkable how these songs and witti- 
cisms steady the soldiers under fire. In a letter 
in the Evening News Sergeant J. Baker writes : 
" Some of our men have made wonderful prac- 
tise with the rifle, and they are beginning to 
fancy themselves as marksmen. If they don't 
hit something every time they think they ought 
to see a doctor about it. . . . Artillery fire, 
however, is the deadliest thing out, and it takes 
a lot of nerve to stand it. The Germans keep 



34 TOMMY ATKINS AT WAR 

up an infernal din from morning till far into 
the night; but they don't do half as much dam- 
age as you would think, though it is annoying to 
have all that row going on when you're trying 
to write home or make up the regimental ac- 
counts." 

Writing home is certainly done under cir- 
cumstances which are apt to have a disturbing 
effect upon the literary style. " Excuse this 
scrawl," writes one soldier, " the German shells 
have interrupted me six times already, and I 
had to dash out with my bayonet before I was 
able to finish it off." Another concludes: 
" Well, mother, I must close now. The bullets 
are a bit too thick for letter-writing." To a 
young engineer the experience was so strange 
that he describes it as " like writing in a 
dream." 

Some of the nick-names given by Tommy 
Atkins to the German shells have already been 
quoted, but the most amusing is surely that 
in a letter from Private Watters. " One of 
our men," he relates, " has got a ripping cure 
for neuralgia, but he isn't going to take out a 
patent for it! While lying in the trenches, 
mad with pain in the face, a shell burst beside 
him. He wasn't hit, but the explosion ren- 
dered him unconscious for a time, and when he 
recovered, his neuralgia had gone. His name 



HUMOR IN THE TRENCHES 35 

is Palmer, so now we call the German shells 
* Palmer's Neuralgia Cure/ " 

The amusing story of a long march afforded 
some mirth in the trenches when it got to be 
known. A party of artillerymen who had been 
toiling along in the dark for hours, and were 
like to drop with fatigue, ran straight into a 
troop of horsemen posted near a wood. " We 
thought they were Germans," one gunner re- 
lated, " for we couldn't make out the colors 
of the uniforms or anything else, until we 
heard some one sing out * Where the hell do 
you think you're going to ? ' Then we knew 
we were with friends." 

Football is the great topic of discussion in 
the trenches. Mr. Harold Ashton, of the 
Daily News and Leader, relates an amusing 
encounter with a Royal Horse Artilleryman 
to whom he showed a copy of the paper. 
" Where's the sporting news ? " asked the ar- 
tilleryman as he glanced over the pages. " Shot 
away in the war," replied Mr. Ashton. 
" What ! " exclaimed Tommy, " not a line 
about the Arsenal? Well, I'm blowed! This 
is a war ! " " We are all in good spirits," 
writes a bombardier in the 44th Battery, Royal 
Artillery, " and mainly anxious to know how 
football is going on in Newcastle now." " I got 
this," said a Gordon Highlander, referring to 



36 TOMMY ATKINS AT WAR 

his wound, " because I became excited in an 
argument with wee Geordie Ferris, of our com- 
pany, about the chances of Queen's Park and 
Rangers this season." 

An artilleryman sends a description of the 
fighting written in the jargon of the football 
field. He describes the war as " the great 
match for the European Cup, which is being 
played before a record gate, though you can't 
perhaps see the crowd." In spite of all their 
swank, he adds, " the Germans haven't scored 
a goal yet, and I wouldn't give a brass farthing 
for their chances of lifting the Cup." At the 
battle of Mons it was noticed that some soldiers 
even went into action with a football attached 
to their knapsacks ! 

But there is no end to the humor of Tommy 
Atkins. Mr. Hamilton Fyfe tells in the 
Daily Mail how he stopped to sympathize with 
a wounded soldier on the roadside near Mons. 
Asking if his injury was very painful he re- 
ceived the remarkable reply : " Oh, it's not 
that. I lost my pipe in the last blooming 
charge." In a letter from the front, published 
in the Glasgow Herald, this passage occurs: 
" Our fellows have signed the pledge because 
Kitchener wants them to. But they all say, 
* God help the Germans, when we get hold of 
them for making us teetotal.' " 



HUMOR IN THE TRENCHES Z7 

What a Frenchman describes as the " new 
British battle-cry " is another source of amuse- 
ment. Whenever artillery or rifle fire sweeps 
over their trenches some facetious Tommy is 
sure to shout, "Are we downhearted?" and 
is met with a resounding " No ! " and laughter 
all along the line. 

To those at home all this fun may seem a 
little thoughtless, but to those in the fighting 
line it is perfectly natural and unforced. " Our 
men lie in the trenches and play marbles with 
the bullets from shrapnel shells," writes one 
of the Royal Engineers; "we have been in 
two countries and hope to tour a third," says a 
letter from a cheery artilleryman; and Mr. 
W. L. Pook (Godalming), who is with one 
of the field post-offices, declares that things are 
going so badly with " our dear old chum Wil- 

helm " that " I've bet X a new hat that 

I'll be home by Christmas." 

Bets are common in the trenches. Gunners 
wager about the number of their hits, riflemen 
on the number of misses by the enemy. Dar- 
ing spirits, before making an attack, have even 
been known to bet on the number of guns they 
would capture. " We have already picked up 
a good deal in the way of German souvenirs," 
says one wag; "enough, indeed, to set a de- 
cent-sized army up in business." The British 



38 TOMMY ATKINS AT WAR 

Army, indeed, is an army of sportsmen. Every 
man must have his game, his friendly wager, 
his joke, and his song. As one officer told his 
men : " You are a lively lot of beggars. You 
don't seem to realize that we're at war.*' 

But they do. That is just Tommy's way. 
It is how he wins through. He always feels 
fit, and he enjoys himself. Corporal Graham 
Hodson, Royal Engineers, provides a typical 
Atkins letter with which to conclude this chap- 
ter. " I am feeling awfully well," he writes, 
" and am enjoying myself no end. All lights 
are out at eight o'clock, so we lie in our blan- 
kets and tell each other lies about the number 
of Germans we have shot and the hairbreadth 
escapes we have had. Oh, it's a great life! " 



THE MAN WITH THE BAYONET 39 



IV 
THE MAN WITH THE BAYONET 

SOME military writers have declared that 
with the increasing range of rifle and 
artillery fire the day of the bayonet is 
over. Battles, they say, must now be fought 
with the combatants miles apart. Bayonets 
are as obsolete as spears and battle axes. Evi- 
dently this theory had the full support of the 
German General Staff, whose military wisdom 
was in some quarters believed to be infallible 
— before the war. 

As events have proved, however, there has 
been no more rude awakening for the German 
soldiery than the efificacy of the bayonet in the 
hands of Tommy Atkins. In spite of the em- 
ployment of gigantic siege guns and their enor- 
mous superiority in strength, though not in 
handling, of artillery, the Germans have failed 
to keep the Allies at the theoretical safe dis- 
tance. They have been forced to accept hand- 



40 TOMMY ATKINS AT WAR 

to-hand fighting, and in every encounter at 
close quarters there has never been a moment's 
doubt as to the result. The have shriveled 
up in the presence of the bayonet, and fled in 
disorder at the first glimpse of naked steel. 
It is not that the Germans lack courage. 
" They are brave enough," our soldiers admit 
with perfect frankness, " but the bayonet ter- 
rifies them, and they cry out in agony at the 
sight of it." 

Admittedly, it requires more than ordinary 
courage to face a bayonet charge, just as it 
calls for a high order of valor to use that 
deadly weapon. Instances are given of young 
soldiers experiencing a sinking sensation, a feel- 
ing of collapse, at the order " Fix Bayonets ! " 
their hands trembling violently over the task. 
But when the bugle sounds the charge, and the 
wild dash at the enemy's lines has begun, with 
the skirl of the pipes to stir up the blood, the 
nerves stiffen and the hands grip the rifle with 
grim determination. " It was his life or 
mine," said a young Highlander describing his 
first battle, " and I ran the bayonet through 
him." There is no time for sentiment, and 
there can be no thought of chivalry. Just get 
the ugly business over and done with as quickly 
as possible. One soldier tells what a sense of 
horror swept over him when his bayonet stuck 



THE MAN WITH THE BAYONET 41 

in his victim, and he had to use all his strength 
to wrench it out of the body in time to tackle 
the next man. 

Many men describe the effects of the British 
bayonet charges and the way the Germans — 
Uhlans, Guards, and artillerymen — recoil 
from them. "If you go near them with the 
bayonet they squeal like pigs," " they beg for 
mercy on their knees," " the way they cringe 
before the bayonet is pitiful " — such are ex- 
amples of the hundreds of references to this 
method of attack. 

Private Whittaker, Coldstream Guards, 
gives a vivid account of the fighting around 
Compiegne. " The Germans rushed at us," he 
writes, " like a crowd streaming from a Cup- 
tie at the Crystal Palace. You could not miss 
them. Our bullets plowed into them, but still 
on they came. I was well entrenched, and 
my rifle got so hot I could hardly hold it. I 
was wondering if I should have enough bul- 
lets, when a pal shouted, * Up Guards and at 
'em.' The next second he was rolled over with 
a nasty knock on the shoulder. When we 
really did get orders to get at them we made 
no mistakes, I can tell you. They cringed at 
the bayonets. Those on the left wing tried 
to get round us. We yelled like demons, and 
racing as hard as we could for quite 500 yards 



42 TOMMY ATKINS AT WAR 

we cut up nearly every man who did not run 
away." 

One of the most graphic pictures of the war 
is that of attack in the night related by a ser- 
geant of the Worcester Regiment, who was 
wounded in the fierce battle of the Aisne, He 
was on picket duty when the attack opened. 
" It was a little after midnight/' he said 
" when the men ahead suddenly fell back to 
report strange sounds and movements along the 
front. The report had just been made when 
we heard a rustling in the bushes near us. We 
challenged and, receiving no reply, fired into 
the darkness. Immediately the enemy rushed 
upon us, but the sleeping camp had been awak- 
ened by the firing, and our men quickly stood 
to arms. As the heavy German guns began to 
thunder and the searchlights to play on our 
position we gathered that a whole Army corps 
was about to be engaged and, falling back 
upon the camp, we found our men ready. No 
sooner had we reached the trenches than there 
rose out of the darkness in front of us a long 
line of white faces. The Germans were upon 
us. * Fire ! ' came the order, and we sent a 
volley into them. They wavered, and dark 
patches in their ranks showed that part of the 
white line had been blotted out. But on they 
came again, the gaps filled up from behind. 



THE MAN WITH THE BAYONET 43 

At a hundred yards' range, the first line dropped 
to fix bayonets, the second opened fire, and 
others followed. We kept on firing and we 
saw their men go down in heaps, but finally 
they swarmed forward with the bayonet and 
threw all their weight of numbers upon us. 
We gave them one terrible volley, but nothing 
could have stopped the ferocious impetus of 
their attack. For one terrible moment our 
ranks bent under the dead weight, but the Ger- 
mans, too, wavered, and in that moment we 
gave them the bayonet, and hurled them back 
in disorder. It was then I got a bayonet 
thrust, but as I fell I heard our boys cheer- 
ing and I knew we had finished them for the 
night." 

This is one of the few accounts that tell of 
the Germans using the bayonet on the offensive, 
and their experience of the businesslike way 
in which Tommy Atkins manipulates this 
weapon has given them a wholesome dread of 
such encounters. Private G. Bridgeman, 4th 
Royal Fusiliers, tells of the glee with which 
his regiment received the order to advance with 
the bayonet. " We were being knocked over 
in dozens by the artillery and couldn't get our 
own back," he writes,* " and I can tell you we 
were like a lot of schoolboys at a treat when 
* Daily Express, Sept. 25th, 1914. 



44 TOMMY ATKINS AT WAR 

we got the order to fix bayonets, for we knew 
we should fix them then. We had about 200 
yards to cover before we got near them, and 
then we let them have it in the neck. It put 
us in mind of tossing hay, only we had human 
bodies. I was separated from my neighbors 
and was on my own when I was attacked by 
three Germans. I had a lively time and was 
nearly done when a comrade came to my rescue. 
I had already made sure of two, but the third 
would have finished me. I already had about 
three inches of steel in my side when my chum 
finished him." 

The charge of the Coldstream Guards at Le 
Gateau is another bayonet exploit that ought 
to be recorded. " It was getting dark when 
we found that the Kaiser's crush was coming 
through the forest to cut off our force," a ser- 
geant relates, " but we got them everywhere, 
not a single man getting through. About 200 
of us drove them down one street, and didn't 
the devils squeal. We came upon a mass of 
them in the main thoroughfare, but they soon 
lost heart and we actually climbed over their 
dead and wounded which were heaped up, to 
get at the others." " What a sight it was, and 
how our fellows yelled ! " says another Cold- 
streamer, describing the same exploit. 

Tommy Atkins has long been known for his 



THE MAN WITH THE BAYONET 45 

accurate artillery and rifle fire, but the bayonet 
is his favorite arm in battle. Through all our 
wars it has proved a deciding, if not indeed 
the decisive, factor in the campaign. Once 
it has been stained in service he fondles it as, 
next to his pipe, his best friend. And it is the 
same with the Frenchman. He calls his bay- 
onet his " little Rosalie," and lays its ruddy 
edges against his cheek with a caress. 



46 TOMMY ATKINS AT WAR 



V 

CAVALRY EXPLOITS 

t*'V"T TE have been through the Uhlans 
^%/ hke brown paper." In this strik- 
" * ing phrase Sir Philip Chetwode, 
commanding the 5th Cavalry Brigade, describes 
the brilliant exploits in the neighborhood of 
Cambrai when, in spite of odds of five to one, 
the Prussian Horse were cut to pieces. Sir 
Philip was the first man to be mentioned in 
despatches, and Sir John French does not hes- 
itate to confirm this dashing officer's tribute 
to his men. " Our cavalry," says the official 
message, " do as they like with the enemy." 

There is no more brilliant page in the history 
of the war than that which has been furnished 
to the historian by the deeds of the British 
cavalry. They carried everything before them. 
In a single encounter the reputation of the 
much-vaunted Uhlans was torn to shreds. 

The charge of the 9th Lancers at Toulin was 
a fine exploit. It was Balaclava over again. 



CAVALRY EXPLOITS 47 

with a gallant Four Hundred charging a bat- 
tery of eleven German guns. But there was 
no blunder this tirixe ; it was a sacrifice to save 
the 5th Infantry Division and some guns, and 
the heroic Lancers dashed to their task with a 
resounding British cheer. " We rode abso- 
lutely into death," says a corporal of the regi- 
ment writing home, " and the colonel told us 
that onlookers never expected a single Lancer 
to come back. About 400 charged and 72 
rallied afterwards, but during the week 200 
more turned up wounded and otherwise. You 
see, the infantry of ours were in a fix and no 
guns but four could be got round, so the Gen- 
eral ordered two squadrons of the 9th to 
charge, as a sacrifice, to save the position. The 
order was given, but not only did A and B 
gallop into line, but C squadron also wheeled 
and came up with a roar. It was magnificent, 
but horrible. The regiment was swept away 
before 1,000 yards was covered, and at 200 
yards from the guns I was practically alone — 
myself, three privates, and an officer of our 
squadron. We wheeled to a flank on the col- 
onel's signal and rode back. I was mad with 
rage, a feeling I cannot describe. But we had 
drawn their fire; the infantry were saved." 

" It was the most magnificent sight I ever 
saw," says Driver W. Cryer, R.F.A., who wit- 



48 TOMMY ATKINS AT WAR 

nessed the Lancers go into action. " They 
rode at the guns Hke men inspired," declares 
another spectator, " and it seemed incredible 
that any could escape alive. Lyddite and 
melinite swept like hail across the thin line of 
intrepid horsemen." " My God ! How they 
fell ! " writes Captain Letorez, who, after his 
horse was shot under him, leapt on a riderless 
animal and came through unhurt. When the 
men got up close to the German guns the}/ 
found themselves riding full tilt into hidden 
wire entanglements — seven strands of barbed 
wire. Horses and men came down in a heap, 
and few of the brave fellows who reached this 
barrier ever returned. 

The 9th Lancers covered themselves with 
glory, and this desperate but successful exploit 
will live as perhaps the most stirring and dra- 
matic battle story of the war. The Germans 
were struck with amazement at the fearlessness 
of these horsemen. Yet the 9th Lancers them- 
selves took their honors very modestly. " We 
only fooled around and saved some guns," said 
one of the Four Hundred, after it was over. 
He had his horse shot under him and his saddle 
blanket drilled through. 

Captain F. O. Grenfell, of the 9th Lancers, 
was the hero of an incident in the saving of 
the guns. All the gunners had been shot down 



CAVALRY EXPLOITS 49 

and the guns looked likely to fall into the 
enemy's hands. " Look here, boys," said 
Grenfell, " we've got to get them back. Who'll 
help? " A score of men instantly volunteered 
— " our chaps would go anywhere with Gren- 
fell," says the corporal who tells the story — 
and " with bullets and shrapnel flying around 
us, off we went. It was a hot time, but our 
captain was as cool as on parade, and kept on 
saying, * It's all right ; they can't hit us.' Well, 
they did manage to hit three of us before we 
saved the guns, and God knows how any of 
us ever escaped." Later on Captain Grenfell 
was himself wounded, but before the ambu- 
lance had been brought up to carry him off he 
sprang into a passing motor-car and dashed 
into the thick of the fighting again. 

The 1 8th Hussars and the 4th Dragoon 
Guards were also in these brilliant cavalry en- 
gagements, but did not suffer anything like 
so badly as the 9th Lancers. Corporal Clarke, 
of the Remount Depot, which was attached to 
the 1 8th Hussars, thus described their " little 
scrap " with the German horsemen near Lan- 
drecies : " We received orders to form line 
(two ranks), and the charge was sounded. 
We then charged, and were under the fire of 
two batteries, one on each side of the cavalry. 
We charged straight through them, and on re- 



50 TOMMY ATKINS AT WAR 

forming we drove the Germans back towards 
the 1st Lincoln Regiment, who captured those 
who had not been shot down. We had about 
103 men missing, and we were about 1,900 
strong. The order then came to retreat, and 
we returned in the direction of Cambrai, but we 
did not take any part in the action there." 

History seems to be repeating itself in 
amazing ways in this war. Just as the charge 
of the Light Brigade at Balaclava has been 
reproduced by the 9th Lancers, so the Scots 
Greys and 12th Lancers have reproduced the 
famous charge of the " Greys " at Waterloo. 
This is the fight which aroused the enthusiasm 
of Sir Philip Chetwode, for his brigade went 
through the German cavalry just as circus 
horses might leap through paper hoops. " I 
watched the charge of the Scots Greys and 
1 2th Lancers," writes Sergeant C. Meades, of 
the Berkshires. " It was grand. I could see 
some of the Germans dropping on their knees 
and holding up their arms. Then, as soon as 
our cavalry got through, the Germans picked 
up their rifles and started firing again. Our 
men turned about and charged back. It was 
no use the Germans putting up their hands a 
second time. Our cavalry cut down every one 
they came to. I don't think there were ten 
Germans left out of about 2,000. I can tell 



CAVALRY EXPLOITS 51 

you they had all they wanted for that day." 
An officer of the dragoons, describing the same 
charge, says the dragoon guards were also 
in it, and that his lads were " as keen as mus- 
tard." In fact, he declares, " there was no 
holding them back. Horses and men posi- 
tively flew at the Germans, cutting through 
much heavier mounts and heavier men than 
ours. The yelling and the dash of the lancers 
and dragoon guards was a thing never to be 
forgotten. We lost very heavily at Mons, and 
it is a marvel how some of our fellows pulled 
through. They positively frightened the en- 
emy. We did terrible execution, and our 
wrists were feeling the strain of heavy riding 
before sunset. With our tunics unbuttoned, 
we had the full use of our right arms for attack 
and defense." 

Another charge of the Scots Greys is thus 
described : " Seeing the wounded getting cut 
at by the German officers, the Scots Greys went 
mad, and even though retreat had been sounded, 
with a non-commissioned officer leading, they 
turned on the Potsdam Guards and hewed their 
way through, their officers following. Having 
got through, the officers took command again, 
formed them up, wheeled, and came back the 
way they went. It was a sight for the gods." 

Another episode was the capture of the Ger- 



52 TOMMY ATKINS AT WAR 

man guns by the 2nd and 5th Dragoons. An 
officer of the 5th gives an account of the ex- 
ploit. " We were attacked at dawn, in a fog/' 
he relates, " and it looked bad for us, but we 
turned it into a victory. Our brigade captured 
all the guns of the German cavalry division, 
fourteen in all; the Bays lost two-thirds of 
their horses and many men. The Gunner Bat- 
tery of ours was annihilated (twenty left), but 
the guns were saved, as we held the ground 
at the end. This was only a series of actions, 
as we have been at it all day, and every day. 
My own squadron killed sixteen horses and 
nine Uhlans in a space of 50 ft., and many 
others, inhabitants told me, were lying in a 
wood close by, where they had crawled. We 
killed their officer, a big Postdam Guard, shot 
through the forehead. L Battery fought their 
guns to the last, * Bradbury ' himself firing a 
gun with his leg off at the knee; a shell took 
off his other leg. He asked me then to be car- 
ried from the guns so that the men could not 
hear or see him." 

One of the 2nd Dragoons, wounded in this 
engagement, says the Bays were desperately 
eager for the order to charge, and exultant 
when the bugle sounded. " Off they went, 
* hell for leather,' at the guns," is how he de- 



CAVALRY EXPLOITS 53 

scribed it. " There was no stopping them once 
they got on the move." 

" No stopping them." That sums up what 
every eye-witness of the British cavalry charges 
says. The coolness and dash of the men in 
action was amazing. Their voices rang out 
as they spurred their horses on, and when they 
crashed into the enemy, the British roar of 
exultation was terrific, and the mighty clash 
of arms rent the air. " Many flung away their 
tunics," writes a Yeomanry Officer with Gen- 
eral Smith-Dorrien's Division, " and fought 
with their shirt sleeves rolled up above the elbow. 
Some of the Hussars and Lancers were almost 
in a horizontal position on the off-side of their 
mounts when they were cutting right and left 
with bare arms." 

Most intimate details of the fighting at close 
quarters are given by another officer. " I shall 
never forget," he says, " how one splendidly- 
made trooper with his shirt in ribbons actually 
stooped so low from his saddle as to snatch 
a wounded comrade from instant death at the 
hands of a powerful German. And then, hav- 
ing swung the man right round to the near 
side, he made him hang on to his stirrup leather 
whilst he lunged his sword clean through the 
German's neck and severed his windpipe as 



54 TOMMY ATKINS AT WAR 

cleanly as would do it in the operating 

theater." 

And here is another incident : " A young 
lancer, certainly not more than twenty, stripped 
of tunic and shirt, and fighting in his vest, 
charged a German who had fired on a wounded 
man, and pierced him to the heart. Seizing the 
German's horse as he fell, he exchanged it for 
his own which had got badly damaged. Then, 
his sword sheathed like lightning, he swung 
round and shot a German clean through the 
head and silenced him forever." 

The soldiers' letters throb with such stories, 
and the swiftness, vigor, and power of expres- 
sion revealed in them is astonishing. Most of 
them were written under withering fire, some 
scribbled even when in the saddle, or when 
the writers were in a state of utter exhaustion 
at the end of a nerve-shattering day. " * Hell 
with the lid off ' describes what we are going 
through," one of the 12th Lancers says of it. 
But the men never lose spirit. Even after 
eighteen or nineteen hours in the saddle they 
still have a kindly, cheering message to write 
home, and a jocular metaphor to hit off the situ- 
ation. " We are going on all right," concludes 
Corporal G. W. Cooper, i6th Lancers; "but 
still it isn't exactly what you'd call playing bil- 
liards at the club." 



WITH THE HIGHLANDERS 55 



VI 

WITH THE HIGHLANDERS 

THE Highlanders have been great favor- 
ites in France. Their gaiety, humor 
and inexhaustible spirits under the 
most trying conditions have captivated every- 
body. Through the villages on their route 
these brawny fellows march with their pipers 
to the proud lilt of " The Barren Rocks of 
Aden" and "The Cock o' the North," fine 
marching tunes that in turn give place to the 
regimental voices while the pipers are recov- 
ering their breath. " It's a long way to In- 
veraray " is the Scotch variant of the new army 
song, but the Scots have not altogether aban- 
doned their own marching airs, and it is a 
stirring thing to hear the chorus of " The Nut- 
Brown Maiden," for instance, sung in the 
Gaelic tongue as these kilted soldiers swing for- 
ward on the long white roads of France. 

A charming little letter published in The 
Times tells how the Highlanders and their 
pipers turned Melun into a " little Scotland " 



56 TOMMY ATKINS AT WAR 

for a week, and the enthusiastic writer con- 
tributes some verses for a suggested new reel, 
of which the following have a sly allusion to 
the Kaiser's order for the extermination of 
General French's " contemptible little army " : 

" What ! Wad ye stop the pipers ? 

Nay, 'tis ower soon ! 
Dance, since ye're dancing, William, 

Dance, ye puir loon ! 
Dance till ye're dizzy, William, 

Dance till ye swoon ! 
Dance till ye're deid, my laddie ! 

We play the tune ! " 

This is all quite in the spirit of the Highland 
soldiers. A Frenchman, writing to a friend 
in London goes into ecstasies over the behavior 
of the Scots in France, and says that at one 
railway station he saw two wounded High- 
landers " dancing a Scotch reel which made 
the crowd fairly shriek with admiration." 
Nothing can subdue these Highlanders' spirits. 
They go into action, as has already been said, 
just as if it were a picnic, and here is a picture 
of life in the trenches at the time of the fierce 
battle of Mons. It is related by a corporal 
of the Black Watch. " The Germans," he 
states, " were just as thick as the Hielan' 
heather, and by weight of numbers (something 
like twenty-five to one) tried to force us back. 
But we had our orders and not a man flinched. 



WITH THE HIGHLANDERS 57 

We just stuck there while the shells were burst- 
ing about us, and in the very thick of it we 
kept on singing Harry Lauder's latest. It was 
terrible, but it was grand — peppering away 
at them to the tune of * Roamin' in the 
Gloamin' ' and * The Lass o' Killiecrankie.' 
It's many a song about the lassies we sang in 
that ' smoker ' wi' the Germans." 

According to another Highlander " those 
men who couldn't sing very well just whistled, 
and those who couldn't whistle talked about 
football and joked with each other. It might 
have been a sham fight the way the Gordons 
took it." With this memory of their un- 
daunted gaiety it is sad to think haw the Gor- 
dons were cut up in that encounter. Their 
losses were terrible. " God help them ! " ex- 
claims one writer. " Theirs was the finest 
regiment a man could see." 

But that was in the dark days of the long 
retreat, when the Highlanders, heedless of 
their own safety, hung on to their positions 
often in spite of the orders to retire, and 
avenged their own losses ten-fold by their pun- 
ishment of the enemy. Private Smiley, of the 
Gordons, describing the German attacks, speaks 
of the devastating effects of the British fire. 
"Poor devils!" he writes of the German in- 
fantry. " They advanced in companies of 



58 TOMMY ATKINS AT WAR 

quite 150 men in files five deep, and our rifle 
has a flat trajectory up to 600 yards. Guess 
the result. We could steady our rifles on the 
trench and take deliberate aim. The first com- 
pany were mown down by a volley at 700 
yards, and in their insane formation every 
bullet was almost sure to find two billets. The 
other companies kept advancing very slowly, 
using their dead comrades as cover, but they 
had absolutely no chance. . . , Yet what a 
pitiful handful we were against such a host! " 
The fighting went on all through the night 
and again next morning, and the British force 
was compelled to retreat. In the dark, Pri- 
vate Smiley, who was wounded, lost his regi- 
ment, and was picked up by a battery of the 
Royal Field Artillery who gave him a lift. 
But he didn't rest long, he says, for " I'm 
damned if they didn't go into action ten min- 
utes afterwards with me on one of the guns." 
Some fine exploits are also given to the 
credit of the Black Watch. They, too, were 
in the thick of it at Mons — " fighting like gen- 
tlemen," as one of them puts it — and the Gor- 
dons and Argyll and Sutherlands also suffered 
severely. In fact, the Highland regiments ap- 
pear to have been singled out by the Germans 
as the object of their fiercest attacks, and all 
the way down to the Aisne they have borne 



WITH THE HIGHLANDERS 59 

the brunt of the fighting. Private Fair- 
weather, of the Black Watch, gives this ac- 
count of an engagement on the Aisne : " The 
Guards went up first and then the Camerons, 
both having to retire. Although we had 
watched the awful slaughter in these regiments, 
when it was our turn we went off with a 
cheer across 1,500 yards of open country. The 
shelling was terrific and the air was full of 
the screams of shrapnel. Only a few of us 
got up to 200 yards of the Germans. Then 
with a yell we went at them. The air whistled 
with bullets, and it was then my shout of 
* 42nd forever ! ' finished with a different kind 
of yell. Crack! I had been presented with 
a souvenir in my knee. I lay helpless and our 
fellows retired over me. Shrapnel screamed 
all around, and melinite shells made the earth 
shake. I bore a charmed life. A bullet went 
through the elbow of my jacket, another 
through my equipment, and a piece of shrapnel 
found a resting place in a tin of bully beef 
which was on my back. I was picked up 
eventually during the night, nearly dead from 
loss of blood." 

Perhaps the most dashing and brilliant epi- 
sode of the fighting is the exploit of the Black 
Watch at the battle of St. Quentin, in which 
they went into action with their old comrades, 



6o TOMMY ATKINS AT WAR 

the Scots Greys. Not content with the or- 
dinary pace at which a bayonet charge can be 
launched against the enemy these impatient 
Highlanders clutched at the stirrup leathers 
of the Greys, and plunged into the midst of 
the Germans side by side with the galloping 
horsemen. The effect was startling, and those 
who saw it declare that nothing could have 
withstood the terrible onslaught. " Only a 
Highland regiment could have attempted such 
a movement," said an admiring English sol- 
dier who watched it, and the terrible gashes 
in the German ranks bore tragic testimony to 
the results of this double charge. The same 
desperate maneuver, it may be recalled, was 
carried out at Waterloo and is the subject of 
a striking and dramatic battle picture. 

Though all the letters from men in the 
Highland regiments speak contemptuously of 
the rifle fire of the Germans, they admit that 
in quantity, at least, it is substantial. 
" They just poured lead in tons into our 
trenches," writes one, " but, man, if we fired 
like yon they'd put us in jail." The German 
artillery, however, is described as " no canny." 
The shells shrieked and tore up the earth all 
around the Highlanders, and accounted for 
practically all their losses. 

Narrow escapes were numerous. An Argyll 



WITH THE HIGHLANDERS 6i 

and Sutherland Highlander got his kilt pierced 
eight times by shrapnel, one of the Black 
Watch had his cap shot off, and while another 
was handling a tin of jam a bullet went clean 
into the tin. Jocular allusions were made to 
these incidents, and somebody suggested label- 
ing the tin " Made in Germany." 

Even the most grim incidents of the war 
are lit up by some humorous or pathetic pas- 
sage which illustrates the fine spirits and even 
finer sympathies of the Highlanders. Lance- 
Corporal Edmondson, of the Royal Irish 
Lancers, mentions the case of two men of the 
Argyll and Sutherlands, who were cut ofif from 
their regiment. One was badly wounded, but 
his comrade refused to leave him, and in a 
district overrun by Germans, they had to exist 
for four days on half-a-dozen biscuits. 

"But how did you manage to do it?" the 
unwounded man was asked, when they were 
picked up. 

" Oh, fine," he answered. 

" How about yourself, I mean ? " the ques- 
tioner persisted in asking. 

" Oh, shut up," said the Highlander. 

The truth is he had gone without food all the 
time in order that his comrade might not want. 

Then there is a story from Valenciennes of a 
poor scared woman who rushed frantically into 



62 TOMMY ATKINS AT WAR 

the road as the British troops entered the town. 
She had two sHght cuts on the arm, and was 
almost naked — the result of German sav- 
agery. When she saw the soldiers she shrank 
back in fear and confusion, whereupon one 
of the Highlanders, quick to see her plight, 
tore off his kilt, ripped it in half, and wrapped 
a portion around her. She sobbed for grati- 
tude at this kindly thought and tried to thank 
him, but before she could do so the Scot, 
twisting the other half of the kilt about him- 
self to the amusement of his comrades, was 
swinging far along the road with his regiment. 

This is not the only Scot who has lost his 
kilt in the war. One of the Royal Engineers 
gives a comic picture of a Highlander who 
appears to have lost nearly every article of 
clothing he left home in. When last seen by 
this letter writer he was resplendent in a 
Guardsman's tunic, the red breeches of a 
Frenchman, a pair of Belgian infantry boots, 
and his own Glengarry ! " And when he wants 
to look particularly smart," adds the Engineer, 
" he puts on a Uhlan's cloak that he keeps 
handy!" 

As another contribution to the humor of 
life in the trenches and, incidentally, to the 
discussion of soldier songs, it is worth while 
quoting from a letter signed " H. L.," in The 



WITH THE HIGHLANDERS 63 

Times, this specimen verse of the sort of lyric 
that dehghts Tommy Atkins. It is the work 
of a Sergeant of the Gordon Highlanders, and 
as the marching song in high favor at Alder- 
shot, must come as a shock to the ideals of 
would-be army laureates : 

" Send out the Army and Navy, 
Send out the rank and file, 

(Have a banana!) 
Send out the brave Territorials, 
They easily can run a mile. 

(I don't think!) 
Send out the boys' and the girls' brigade, 
They will keep old England free : 
Send out my mother, my sister, and my brother, 
But for goodness sake don't send me." 

It is doggerel, of course, but it has a certain 
cleverness as a satire on the music-hall song 
of the day, and the Gordons carried it gaily 
with them to their battlefields, blending it in 
that odd mixture of humor and tragedy that 
makes up the soldier's life. The bravest, it is 
truly said, are always the happiest, and of the 
happy warriors who have fallen in this cam- 
paign one must be remembered here in this 
little book of British heroism. He died 
bravely on the hill of Jouarre, near La Ferte, 
and his comrades buried him where he fell. 
On a little wooden cross are inscribed the sim- 
ple words, " T. Campbell, Seaforths." 



64 TOMMY ATKINS AT WAR 



VII 

THE INTREPID IRISH 

^^rr^ HERE'S been a divil av lot av talk 
I about Irish disunion," says Mr. Doo- 
-■- ley somewhere, " but if there's 
foightin' to be done it's the bhoys that'll let 
nobody else thread on the Union Jack." That 
is the Irish temperament all over, and in these 
days when history is being written in lightning 
flashes the rally of Ireland to the old flag is 
inspiring, but not surprising. 

Political cynics have always said that Eng- 
land's difficulty would be Ireland's opportunity, 
but they did not reckon with the paradoxical 
character of the Irish people. England's diffi- 
culty has indeed been Ireland's opportunity — 
the opportunity of displaying that generous na- 
ture which has already contributed thousands 
of men to the Expeditionary Force, and is 
mustering tens of thousands more under the 
patriotic stimulus of those old political enemies, 
Mr. John Redmond and Sir Edward Carson, 



THE INTREPID IRISH 65 

The civil war is " put off," as one Irish soldier 
expresses it; old enmities are laid aside and 
Orange and Green are fighting shoulder to 
shoulder, on old battlefields whose names are 
writ in glory upon the colors. 

No more cheerful regiments than the Irish 
are to be found in the firing line. Their 
humor in the trenches, their love of songs, and 
their dash in action are manifested in all their 
letters. An English soldier, writing home, 
says that even in the midst of a bayonet charge 
an Irishman can always raise a laugh. " Look 
at thim divils retratin' with their backs facin' 
us," was an Irish remark about the Germans 
that made his fellows roar. And when the 
Fusiliers heard the story of the Kaiser's lucky 
shamrock, one of them said : " Sure, an' it'll 
be moighty lucky for him if he doesn't lose 
it " ; adding to one of three comrades, " There'll 
be a leaf apiece for us, Hinissey, when we get 
to Berlin." 

In the fighting the Irish have done big 
things and their dash and courage have filled 
their British and French comrades with ad- 
miration. Referring to the first action in 
which the Irish Guards took part, and the 
smart businesslike way in which they cut up 
the Germans, Private Heffernan, Royal Irish 
Fusiliers, says they had a great reception as 



66 TOMMY ATKINS AT WAR 

they marched back into the Hnes : "Of course, 
we all gave them a cheer, but it would have 
done your heart good to see the Frenchmen 
(who had a good view of the fighting) stand- 
ing up in their trenches and shouting like mad 
as the Guards passed by. The poor chaps 
didn't like the idea that it was their first time 
in action, and were shy about the fuss made 
of them : and there was many a row in camp 
that night over men saying fine things and re- 
minding them of their brand new battle hon- 
ors." * 

A fine story is told of the heroism of two 
Irish Dragoons by a trooper of that gallant 
regiment. " One of our men," he says, " car- 
ried a wounded comrade to a friendly farm- 
house under heavy fire, and when the retreat 
was ordered both were cut off. A patrol of 
a dozen Uhlans found them there and ordered 
them to surrender, but they refused, and, tack- 
ling the Germans from behind a barricade of 
furniture, killed or wounded half of them. 
The others then brought up a machine gun 
and threatened the destruction of the farm: 
but the two dragoons, remembering the kind- 

* The Irish Guards were created entirely on the in- 
itiative of Queen Victoria, and as a recognition of the 
fine achievements of "Her brave Irish" in the South 
African War. 



THE INTREPID IRISH 67 

ness of the farm owners and unwilling to 
bring ruin and disaster upon them, rushed from 
the house in the wild hope of tackling the 
gun. The moment they crossed the doorway 
they fell riddled with bullets." Another story 
of the Irish Dragoons is told by Trooper P 
Ryan. One of the Berkshires had been cut off 
from his regiment while lingering behind to 
bid a dying chum good-by, when he was sur- 
rounded by a patrol of Uhlans. A troop of 
the Irish Dragoons asked leave of their officer 
to rescue the man, and sweeping down on the 
Germans, quickly scattered them. But they 
were too late. The plucky Berkshire man had 
" gone under," taking three Germans with him. 
" We buried him with his chum by the way- 
side," adds Trooper Ryan. " Partings of this 
kind are sad, but they are everyday occur- 
rences in war, and you just have to get used to 
them." 

The Dragoons also went to the assistance of 
a man of the Irish Rifles who, wounded him- 
self, was yet kneeling beside a fallen comrade 
of the Gloucester Regiment, and gamely firing 
to keep the enemy off. The Dragoons found 
both men thoroughly worn out, but urgency 
required the regiment to take up another posi- 
tion, and the wounded men had to be left to 
the chance of being picked up by the Red 



68 TOMMY ATKINS AT WAR 

Cross corps. " They knew that," says the 
trooper who relates the incident, " and weren't 
the men to expect the general safety to be 
risked for them. * Never mind,' said the 
young Irishman, * shure the sisters '11 pick us 
up all right, an' if they don't — well, we've 
only once to die, an' it's the grand fight we've 
had annyhow.' " 

One of the most stirring exploits of the war 
— equaled only by the devotion and self-sac- 
rifice of the Royal Engineers in the fight for 
the bridge — is that of the Irish Fusiliers in 
saving another regiment from annihilation. 
The regiment was in a distant and exposed po- 
sition, and a message had to be sent ordering 
its retirement. This could only be accom- 
plished by despatching a messenger, and the 
fusiliers were asked for volunteers. Every 
man offered himself, though all knew what it 
meant to cross that stretch of open country 
raked with rifle fire. They tossed for the 
honor, and the first man to start-off with the 
message was an awkward shock-headed chap 
who, the narrator says, didn't impress by his 
appearance. Into the blinding hail of bullets 
he dashed, and cleared the first hundred yards 
without mishap. In the second lap he fell 
wounded, but struggled to his feet and rushed 
on till he was hit a second time and collapsed. 



THE INTREPID IRISH 69 

One man rushed to his assistance and another 
to bear the message. The first reached the 
wounded man and started to carry him in, but 
when nearing the trenches and their cheering 
comrades, both fell dead. The third man had 
by this time got well on his way, and was al- 
most within reach of the endangered regiment 
when he, too, was hit. Half-a-dozen men ran 
out to bring him in, and the whole lot of this 
rescuing party were shot down, but the 
wounded fusilier managed to crawl to the 
trenches and deliver the order. The regiment 
fell back into safety and the situation was 
saved, but the message arrived none too soon, 
and the gallant Irish Fusiliers certainly saved 
one battalion from extinction. 

In one fierce little fight the Munster Fusiliers 
(the "Dirty Shirts") had to prevent them- 
selves from being cut ofif, and in a desperate 
effort to capture the whole regiment the Ger- 
mans launched cavalry, infantry and artillery 
upon them. " The air was thick with noises," 
says one of the Munsters in telling the story, 
" men shouting, waving swords, and blazing 
away at us like blue murder. But our lads 
stood up to them without the least taste of fear, 
and gave them the bayonet and the bullet in 
fine style. They crowded upon us in tremen- 
dous numbers, but though it was hell's own 



70 TOMMY ATKINS AT WAR 



work we wouldn't surrender, and they had at 
last to leave us. I got a sword thrust in the 
ribs, and then a bullet in me, and went under 
for a time, but when the mist cleared from 
my eyes I could see the boys cutting up the 
Germans entirely." The losses were heavy, 
and the comment was made in camp that the 
Germans had cleaned up the " Dirty Shirts " 
for once. " Well," said an indignant Fusilier, 
*' it was a moighty expensive washin' for them 
annyway." 

How Private Parker of the Inniskilling 
Fusiliers escaped from four Uhlans who had 
taken him prisoner is an example of personal 
daring. His captors marched him off between 
them till they came to a narrow lane v\^here 
the horsemen could walk only in single file — 
three in front of him and one behind. He 
determined to make a bid for liberty. Duck- 
ing under the rear horse he seized his rifle, 
shot the Uhlan, and disappeared in the dark- 
ness. For days he lay concealed, and on one 
occasion German searchers entered the room 
in which he was hidden, yet failed to find him. 

Private Court, 2nd Royal Scots, pays a 
tribute to the gallantry of the Connaught Ran- 
gers, and tells how they saved six guns which 
had been taken by the enemy. The sight of 
British guns in German hands was too much 



THE INTREPID IRISH 71 

for the temper of the Connaughts, who came 
on with an irresistible charge, compelHng the 
guns to be abandoned, and enabhng the Royal 
Field Artillery to dash in and drag them out 
of danger. Another soldier relates that the 
Connaughts were trapped by a German abuse 
of the white flag and suffered badly when, all 
unsuspecting, they went to take over their pris- 
oners; but they left their mark on the enemy 
on that occasion, and " when the Connaught 
blood is up," as one of the Rangers expresses 
it, " it's a nasty job to be up agin it." 

Stories of Irish daring might be multiplied, 
but these are sufficient to show that the old 
regiments are still full of the fighting spirit. 
** Now boys," one of their non-commissioned 
officers is reported to have said, " no surrender 
for us ! Ye've got yer rifles, and yer baynits, 
and yer butts, and after that, ye divils, there's 
yer fists." A drummer of the Irish Fusiliers 
who had lost his regiment, met another soldier 
on the road and begged for the loan of his 
rifle " just to get a last pop at the divils." Sir 
John French is himself of Irish parentage — 
Roscommon and Galway claim him — and 
there is no more ardent or cheerful fighter in 
the British army. 

" It beats Banagher," says a jocular private 
in the Royal Irish, '* how these Germans always 



^2 TOMMY ATKINS AT WAR 

disturb us at meal times. I suppose it's just 
the smell of the bacon that they're after, and 
Rafferty says we can't be too careful where 
we stow the mercies." From all accounts the 
Germans taken prisoner are about as ill-fed as 
they are ill-informed. Private Harkness of 
the same regiment, says the captives' first need 
is food and then information. One of them 
asked him why the Irish weren't fighting in 
their own civil war. " Faith," said he, " this 
is the only war we know about for the time 
being, and there's mighty little that's civil about 
it with the way you're behaving yourselves." 
The German looked gloomy, and, added Hark- 
ness, " I don't think he liked a plain Irishman's 
way of putting things." 



'^A FIRST-CLASS FIGHTING MAN" 73 



VIII 

" A FIRST-CLASS FIGHTING MAN '' 

44 TT F ever I come back, and anybody at home 
I talks to me about the glory of war, I 

-*- shall be d d rude to him." That is 

an extract from the letter of an officer who 
has seen too much oi the grim and ugly side 
of the campaign to find any romance in it. 
Yet out of all the horror there emerge incidents 
of conspicuous bravery that strike across the 
imagination like sunbeams, and cast a glow 
even in the darkest corners of the stricken field. 

Valor is neither a philosophy nor a calcula- 
tion. The soldier does not say to himself, 
" Look here, Atkins, 

* One crowded hour of glorious life 
Is worth an age without a name.' " 

He goes into the business of war determined 
to get it over as quickly as possible,* and when 

* Gunner Batey, Royal Garrison Artillery, writes of 
a comrade. Gunner Spencer Mann: "He seems in his 



74 TOMMY ATKINS AT WAR 

he does something stupendous, as he does 
nearly ever day, it is just because the thing 
has to be done, and he is there to do it. 
Tommy Atkins doesn't stop to think whether 
he is doing a brave thing, nor does he wait 
for orders to do it; he just sets about it as part 
of the day's work, and looks very much abashed 
if anybody applauds him for it. 

For instance, there is a man in the Buffs 
(the story is told by a driver of the Royal 
Marine Artillery), who picked up a wounded 
comrade and carried him for more than a mile 
under a vicious German fire that was exter- 
minating nearly everything. It was a fine act 
of heroism. " Yet if anybody were to sug- 
gest the V.C. he'd break his jaw," says the 
writer, " and as he's a man with a 4.7 punch 
the men of his regiment keep very quiet about 
it." 

Some fine exploits are recorded of the Ar- 
tillery. When the Munster Fusiliers were sur- 
rounded in one extended engagement a driver 
of the R.F.A. named Pledge, who was shut 
up with them, was asked to " cut through " 
and get the assistance of the Artillery. Lance- 
Corporal John McMillan, Black Watch, thus 

glory during the fighting. He fears nothing, and is al- 
ways shouting, * Into them, lads : the sooner we get 
through, the sooner we'll get home.' " 



"A FIRST-CLASS FIGHTING MAN" 75 

describes what happened : " Pledge mounted 
a horse and dashed through the German lines. 
His horse was brought to the ground, and, as 
we afterwards discovered, he sustained severe 
injuries to his legs. Nothing daunted, he got 
his horse on its feet, and again set off at a 
great pace. To get to the artillery he had to 
pass down a narrow road, which was lined 
with German riflemen. He did not stop, how- 
ever, but dashed through without being hit by 
a single bullet. He conveyed the message to 
the artillery, which tore off to the assistance of 
the Munsters, and saved the situation." 

The saving of the guns is always an operation 
that calls for intrepidity, and many exploits 
of that kind are related. Lance-Corporal Big- 
nell. Royal Berks, tells how he saw two R.F.A. 
drivers bring a gun out of action at Mons. 
Shells had been flying round the position, and 
the gunners had been killed, whereupon the 
two drivers went to rescue the gun. " It v/as 
a good quarter of a mile away," says the wit- 
ness, " yet they led their horses calmly through 
the hail of shell to where the gun stood. Then 
one man held the horses while the other lim- 
bered up. It seemed impossible that the men 
could live through the German fire, and from 
the trenches we watched them with great anx- 
iety. But they came through all right, and 



76 TOMMY ATKINS AT WAR 

we gave them a tremendous cheer as they 
brought the gun in." 

Sir John French in one of his despatches 
records that during the action at Le Cateau on 
August 26th the whole of the officers and men 
of one of the British batteries had been killed 
or wounded with the exception of one subaltern 
and two gunners. These continued to serve 
one gun, kept up a sound rate of fire, and came 
unhurt from the battlefield. 

Another daring act is described by W. E. 
Motley, R.F.A. " Things became very warm 
for us," he says, " when the Germans found the 
range. In fact it became so hot that an order 
was passed to abandon the guns temporarily. 
This is the time when our men don't obey 
orders, so they stuck to their guns. They 
ceased their fire for a time. The enemy, think- 
ing our guns were out of action, advanced rap- 
idly. Then was the time our men proved their 
worth. They absolutely shattered the Ger- 
mans with their shells." 

Some gallant stories are told of the Royal 
Engineers. One especially thrilling, is given 
in the words of Darino, a lyrical artist of the 
Comedie Francaise, who joined the Cuirassiers, 
and was a spectator of the scene he describes. 
A bridge had to be blown up, and the whole 
place was an inferno of mitrailleuse and rifle 



"A FIRST-CLASS FIGHTING MAN" jy 

fire. " Into this," he relates, " went your En- 
gineers. A party of them rushed towards the 
bridge, and, though dropping one by one, were 
able to lay the charge before all were sacrificed. 
For a moment we waited. Then others came. 
Down towards the bridge they crept, seeking 
what cover they could in their eagerness to get 
near enough to light the fuse. Ah! it was 
then we Frenchmen witnessed something we 
shall never forget. One man dashed forward 
to his task in the open, only to fall dead. An- 
other, and another, and another followed him, 
only to fall like his comrade, and not till the 
twelfth man had reached the fuse did the at- 
tempt succeed. As the bridge blew up with 
a mighty roar, we looked and saw that the 
brave twelfth man had also sacrificed his life." 

During the long retreat from Mons the Mid- 
dlesex Regiment got into an awkward plight, 
and a bridge — the only one left to the Ger- 
mans — had to be destroyed to protect them. 
This was done by a sergeant of the Engineers, 
but immediately afterwards his own head was 
blown away by a German shell. " The brave 
fellow certainly saved the position," writes one 
of the Middlesex men, " for if the Germans 
had got across that night I'm afraid there would 
have been very few of us left." 

Other daring incidents may be told briefly. 



78 TOMMY ATKINS AT WAR 

One of the liveliest is that of seven men of 
the Worcesters, who were told they could " go 
for a stroll." While loitering along the road 
they encountered a party of Germans, and cap- 
tured them all without firing a shot. " We 
just covered them with our rifles," writes Pri- 
vate Styles ; *' so simple ! " Sir John French 
relates a similar exploit of an officer who, while 
proceeding along the road in charge of a num- 
ber of led horses, received information that 
there were some of the enemy in the neigh- 
borhood. Upon seeing them he gave the order 
to charge, whereupon three German officers 
and 1 06 men surrendered! On another occa- 
sion a portion of a supply column was cut off 
by a detachment of German cavalry and the 
officer in charge was summoned to surrender. 
He refused, and starting his motors off at full 
speed dashed safely through. 

Hairbreadth escapes are related in hundreds 
of letters, and they have a dramatic quality 
that makes the ineffectual fires of imaginative 
fiction burn very low. Sergeant E. W. Tur- 
ner, West Kents, writes to his sweetheart: 
" The bullet that wounded me at Mons went 
into one breast pocket and came out of the 
other, and in its course passed through your 
photo." Private G. Ryder vouches for this: 
" We were having what you might call a dainty 



"A FIRST-CLASS FIGHTING MAN" 79 

afternoon tea in the trenches under shell fire. 
The mugs were passed round with the biscuits 
and the ' bully ' as best they could by the mess 
orderlies, but it was hard work messing through 
without getting more than we wanted. My 
next-door neighbor, so to speak, got a shrapnel 
bullet in his tin, and another two doors off had 
his biscuit shot out of his hand." Lieutenant 
A. C. Johnstone, the Hants county cricketer, 
after escaping other bullets and shells which 
were dancing around him, was hit over the 
heart by a spent bullet, which on reaching hos- 
pital he found in his left-hand breast pocket. 
Private Plant, Manchester Regiment, had a 
cigarette shot out of his mouth, and a comrade 
got a bullet into his tin of bully beef. " It 
saves the trouble of opening it," was his face- 
tious remark. 

One of the Royal Scots Fusiliers was saved 
by a cartridge clip. He felt the shock and 
thought he had been hit, but the bullet was 
diverted by the impact owing to a loose cart- 
ridge. Had it been struck higher up all the 
cartridges might have exploded. Another let- 
ter mentions a case where a man got two bul- 
lets ; one struck his cartridge belt, and the other 
entered his sleeve and passed through his 
trousers as far as the knee, without even 
scratching him. Drummer E. O'Brien, South 



8o TOMMY ATKINS AT WAR 

Lancashires, had his bugle and piccolo smashed, 
his cap carried away by a bullet, and another 
bullet through his coat before he was finally 
struck by a piece of shrapnel which injured his 
ankle; and another soldier records thus his 
adventures under fire : ( i ) Shell hit and shat- 
tered my rifle; (2) Cap shot off my head; (3) 
Bullet in muscle of right arm. " But never 
mind, my dear," he comments, " I had a good 
run for my money.'' Staff-Sergeant J. W. 
Butler, 1st Lincolns, was saved by a paper pad 
in his pocket book; the bullet embedded itself 
there. 

Sapper McKenny, Royal Engineers, records 
the unique experience of a comrade whose cap 
was shot off so neatly that the bullet left a 
groove in his hair just like a barber's parting! 
He thinks the German who fired the shot is 
probably a London hairdresser. 

Private J. Drury, 3rd Coldstream Guards, 
also had a narrow escape, being hit by a bullet 
out of a shell between the left eye and the tem- 
ple. " It struck there," he relates, " but one 
of our men got it out with a safety pin, and 
now I've got it in my pocket ! " 

The amusing escapade of " wee Hecky Mac- 
Alister," is told by Private T. McDougall, of 
the Highland Light Infantry. Hecky went 
into a burn for a swim, and suddenly found 



"A FIRST-CLASS FIGHTING MAN" 8i 

the attentions of the Germans were directed to 
him. " You know what a fine mark he is with 
his red head/' says the writer to his correspond- 
ent, and so they just hailed bullets at him. 
Hecky, however, " dooked and dooked," and 
emerged from his bath happy but breathless 
after his submarine exploit. 

But while the men in the trenches applaud 
all the brilliant exploits of their fellows, and 
laugh and jest over the lively escapes of the 
lucky ones who, in Atkins's phraseology, " only 
get their hair parted," there are other fine deeds 
done in the quiet corners of hospitals and out 
of the glamour of battle that move the strong- 
est to tears. Such is the incident related by 
a member of the Royal Army Medical Corps, 
and it is a fitting story with which to close this 
chapter. One soldier, mortally wounded, was 
being attended by the doctor when his eye fell 
on a dying comrade. " See to him first, doc- 
tor," he said faintly, " that poor bloke's going 
home; he'll be home before me." 



82 TOMMY ATKINS AT WAR 



IX 
OFFICERS AND GENTLEMEN 



H 



**T T-^ ^^^^ doing his duty like the officer 
and gentleman he was." Could any 
man have a finer epitaph? It is an 
extract from a letter written by Private J. Fair- 
clou gh, Yorkshire Light Infantry, to General 
A. Wynn, and refers to the death of the Gen- 
eral's son, Lieutenant G. O. Wynn, killed in 
action at Landrecies. The letter goes on to 
tell of the affection in which the young officer 
was held by his men, and this story of courage 
and unselfishness in the field is the simple but 
faithful tribute of a devoted soldier. 

The war has brought out in a hundred ways 
the admirable qualities of all ranks in the 
British Expeditionary Force; but the relations 
of officers and men have never been revealed 
to us before with such friendly candor and 
mutual appreciation. Over and over again in 
these letters from the front the soldiers are 
found extolling the bravery and self-sacrifice 



OFFICERS AND GENTLEMEN 83 

of their officers. '* No praise is too great for 
them," " our officers always pull us through," 
" they know their business to the finger-tips,'^ 
" as cool as cucumbers under fire," " magnifi- 
cent examples," " absolutely fearless in the 
tightest corners " — these are some of the 
phrases in which the men speak proudly of 
those in command. 

One officer in the ist Hampshire Regiment 
read Marmion aloud in the trenches, under a 
fierce maxim fire, to keep up the spirits of his 
men ; and they " play cards and sing popular 
songs to cheer us up," adds another genial 
soldier. Not that the men suffer much from 
depression. On the contrary, the commanders 
agree that their spirits have been splendid. 
" Our men are simply wonderful," writes an 
officer in the cavalry division ; " they will go 
through anything." 

The most surprising thing in the soldiers' 
letters is that they should show such an extra- 
ordinary sense of the dramatic. They throb 
with emotion. Take this account of the death 
of Captain Berners as written by Corporal S. 
Haley, of the Brigade of Guards, in a letter 
published by the Star: 

" Captain Berners, of the Irish, v/as the life 
and soul of our lot. When shells were bursting 
over our heads he would buck us up with his 



84 TOMMY ATKINS AT WAR 

humor about Brock's displays at the Palace. 
But when we got into close quarters it was he 
who was in the thick of it. And didn't he 
fight ! I don't know how he got knocked over, 
but one of our fellows told me he died a game 
'un. He was one of the best of officers, and 
there is not a Tommy who would not have 
gone under for him."* 

Among those who fell at Cambrai was Cap- 
tain Clutterbuck, of the King's Own (Lancas- 
ter) Regiment. He was killed while leading a 
bayonet charge. " Just like Clutterbuck," wrote 
a wounded sergeant, describing the officer's 
valor, and adding, " Lieutenant Steele-Perkins 
also died one of the grandest deaths a British 
officer could wish for. He was lifted out of 
the trenches wounded four times, but protested 
and crawled back again till he was mortally 
wounded." 

A sergeant of the Coldstream Guards, in an 
account given to the Evening News, speaks of 
the death of Captain Windsor Clive. " We 
were sorry to lose Captain Clive, who," he says, 
" was a real gentleman and a soldier. He was 
knocked over- by the bursting of a shell, which 
maddened our fellows I can tell you." The 
utmost anger was also aroused in the men of 
the Lancaster Regiment by the death of Colonel 
Dykes. " Good-by, boys," he exclaimed as he 



OFFICERS AND GENTLEMEN 85 

fell; and " By God, we avenged him," said one 
of the " boys " in describing the fight. 

Many instances are given of the devotion 
shown by the soldiers in saving their officers. 
Private J. Ferrie, of the Royal Scots Fusiliers, 
wounded while defending a bridge at Lan- 
drecies, tells in the Glasgow Herald how Ser- 
geant Crop rescued Lieutenant Stephens, who 
had been badly hit and must otherwise have fal- 
len into the enemy's hands : " The sergeant 
took the wounded lieutenant on his back, but as 
he could not crawl across the bridge so encum- 
bered he entered the water, swam the canal, 
carried the wounded man out of line of fire, and 
consigned him to the care of four men of his 
own company. Of a platoon of fifty-eight 
which was set to guard the bridge only twenty- 
six afterwards answered to the roll call." 

On the other hand, there are many records 
of the tremendous risks taken by officers to 
rescue wounded men. Private J. Williams, 
Royal Field Artillery, had two horses shot 
under him and was badly injured " when the 
major rushed up and saved me." " I was 
lying wounded when an artillery major picked 
me up and took me into camp, or I would 
never have seen England again," writes Lance- 
Corporal J. Preston, Inniskilling Fusiliers. 
Lieutenant Sir Alfred Hickman was wounded 



86 TOMMY ATKINS AT WAR 

in the shoulder while rescuing a wounded ser- 
geant under heavy fire. How another disabled 
man was brought in by Lieutenant Amos, is 
told by Private George Pringle, King's Own 
Scottish Borderers. " Several of us volun- 
teered to do it," he says, " but the lieutenant 
wouldn't hear of anybody else taking the risk." 
Captain McLean, Argyll and Sutherland High- 
landers, saved one of his men under similar cir- 
cumstances. All the letters are full of praise 
of the officers who, in the words of Private 
James Allan, Gordon Highlanders, " seem to be 
mainly concerned about the safety of their men, 
and indifferent to the risks they take upon 
themselves." 

Every Tommy knows he is being finely led. 
The officers are a constant source of inspiration 
and encouragement. Private Campbell, Irish 
Fusiliers, writes: 

" Lieutenant O'Donovan led us all the time, 
and was himself just where the battle was 
hottest. I shall never forget his heroism. I 
can see him now, revolver in one hand and 
sword in the other. He certainly accounted 
for six Germans on his own, and inspired us 
to the effort of our lives. He has only been 
six months in the service, is little more than a 
boy, but the British Army doesn't possess a 
more courageous officer." 



OFFICERS AND GENTLEMEN 87 

The Scottish Borderers speak proudly of 
Major Leigh, who was hit during a bayonet 
charge, and when some of his men turned to 
help him, shouted " Go on, boys ; don't mind 
me." A lieutenant of A Company, ist Chesh- 
ires : " I only know his nickname," says Pri- 
vate D. Schofield — though wounded in two 
places, rushed to help a man in distress, brought 
him in, and then went back to pick up his fal- 
len sword. Captain Robert Bruce, heir of 
Lord Balfour of Burleigh, distinguished him- 
self in the fighting at Mons. One of the Argyll 
and Sutherland Highlanders relates that, in 
spite of wounds. Captain Bruce took command 
of about thirty Highlanders who had been cut 
off, and throwing away his sword, seized a rifle 
from one of the killed, and fought side by side 
with his men. 

How the guns were saved at Soissons is told 
in a letter, published in The Times, from Ser- 
geant C. Meades, of the Berkshire Regiment. 
" We had the order to abandon our guns," he 
writes, " but our young lieutenant said, ' No, 
boys; we'll never let the Germans take a 
British gun,' and with a cheer we fought on. 
. . . The Staffords came up and reinforced us. 
Then I got hit, and retired. . . . But the guns 
were saved. When the last of the six got 
through every one cheered like mad." One of 



88 TOMMY ATKINS AT WAR 

the West Kents also described the daring action 
of an officer. In the midst of terrific fire, he 
walked calmly down the artillery line, putting 
our lost guns out of action so that they would 
be useless to the Germans. 

Even into the letters describing these gallant 
incidents there creep frequent evidences of 
Atkins's unconquerable spirit and sense of hu- 
mor. Private R. Toomey, Royal Army Med- 
ical Corps, tells of an officer of the Royal Irish 
shouting at the top of his voice, " Give 'em 
hell, boys, give 'em hell ! " He had been 
wounded in the back by a lump of shrapnel, 
but, says Toomey, " it was a treat to hear him 
shouting." 

Most of these accoimts refer to the weary 
days of the retirement from Mons to Com- 
piegne, a test of endurance that brought out the 
splendid fighting qualities of officers and men 
alike. That retirement is certainly one of the 
most masterly achievements of a war already 
glorious for the exploits of British arms. Day 
after day our men had to fall back, tired and 
hungry, exhausted from want of sleep, yet 
fighting magnificently, and only impatient to 
begin the attack. This eagerness for battle is 
in marked contrast to the spirit of the German 
troops, of whom there is abundant evidence 
that the men have often to be driven into action 



OFFICERS AND GENTLEMEN 89 

by the threatening swords and revolvers of 
their officers. 

Francis Ryan, Northumberland Fusiliers, 
tells in the Scotsman how young lieutenant 
Smith-Dorrien pleaded to be allowed to remain 
with his men in the trenches after a retirement 
had been ordered. The South Staffordshires 
thought they were " getting along splendidly," 
says one of the men, " until the General came 
and told us we must retreat or we would be 
surrounded." The officer spoke very encour- 
agingly, and praised his men; but they were 
all so unwilling to yield ground that one of 
them, expressing impatience, made a comment 
he would never have thought of doing in peace 
time. The General only smiled. 

This impatience pervaded all arms of the 
service. Some of the Highland regiments 
began to grow grim and sullen, in spite of their 
play with the bayonet; and the Irish corps 
became " unaisy." It was then that the of- 
ficers' fine spirit brought reassurance. This is 
how the King's Royal Rifles were cheered up, 
according to Private Harman : " The officers 
knew we were disappointed, because on the 
fifth day of retirement our commanding officer 
came round and spoke to us. * Stick it, boys, 
stick it,' he said ; * To-morrow we shall go 
the other way and advance — Biff, biff ! ' The 



90 TOMMY ATKINS AT WAR 

way he said ' Biff, biff,' delighted the men, 
and after that we frequently heard men shout- 
ing, *Biff, biff!'" 

General Sir John French, who is a great 
favorite with all ranks, and spoken of with 
affection by every Tommy, makes frequent 
tours of the lines and has a cheery word for 
every regiment. Driver W. Cryer, Royal Field 
Artillery, relates in the Manchester Guardian 
that, at St. Quentin, Sir John French visited 
the troops, " smiling all over his face," and 
explained the meaning of the repeated retire- 
ments. Up to then, says Cryer, the men had 
almost to be pulled away by the officers, but 
after the General's visit they fell in with the 
general scheme with great cheerfulness. 

Summing up his impressions of the nerve- 
strain of these weary rearguard actions, a fa- 
mous cavalry officer writing home, says : " We 
had a hell of a time. . . . But the men were 
splendid. I don't believe any other troops in 
the world could have stood it." 



BROTHERS IN ARMS 91 



X 

BROTHERS IN ARMS 

THERE is a fine fraternity between the 
British and the French soldiers. They 
don't understand very much of each 
other's speech, but they "muddle through," 
as Atkins puts it, with " any old lingo/' The 
French call out, " Bravo, Tommee ! " and 
share cigarettes with him: and Atkins, not 
very sure of his new comrades' military Chris- 
tian name, replies with a cheery " Right, Oh ! " 
Then turning to his own fellows he shouts, 
" Are we downhearted ? " and the clamorous 
" No ! " always brings forth a rousing French 
cheer. 

Having seen each other in action since they 
first met on the way to battle they have 
grown to respect each other more and more. 
There is not much interchange of compliments 
in the letters from the trenches, but such as 
there is clearly establishes the belief of Atkins 
that he is fighting side by side with a brave 
and generous ally. 



92 TOMMY ATKINS AT WAR 

" We always knew?" writes one soldier, 
" that the French were swift and dangerous 
in attack, but we know now that they can 
fight on the stubbornly defensive/' One of 
the South Lancashires is loud in his praise of 
their behavior under fire. " Especially the ar- 
tillery," Sergeant J. Baker adds ; " the French 
seem to like the noise, and aren't happy unless 
it's there." 

One of The Times correspondents mentions 
that the German guns have a heavy sound 
" boum," and the French a sharper one, 
" bing " ; but neither of them is very pleasant 
to the ear, and it requires a cultured military 
taste like that of the French to enjoy the full 
harmony of the music when the British 
" bang " is added to the general cannonading. 
The French artillery is admitted to be fine, the 
deadly accuracy of the gunners being highly 
praised by all who have watched the havoc 
wrought in the German lines. 

For the French soldier, however, the path 
of greatest glory lies in the charge. Dash and 
fire are what he possesses in the highest degree. 
His highly-strung temperament chafes under 
delays and disappointments. He hasn't the 
solid, bull-dog courage that enables the British 
soldier to take hard knocks, even severe pun- 
ishment, and come up smiling again to renew 



BROTHERS IN ARMS 93 

the battle that he will only allow to end in one 
way, and that way victory. 

In the advance, as one writer describes it, 
the French dash forward in spasmodic move- 
ments, making immediately for cover. After 
a brief breathing space they bound into the 
open again, and again seek any available shel- 
ter. And so they proceed till the charge is 
sounded, when with gleaming bayonets and a 
cry of ''pour la gloire" upon their lips they 
sweep down upon the enemy at a tremendous 
pace. The whole thing is exhilarating to watch, 
and to the men engaged it is almost intoxica- 
ting. They see red and the only thing that can 
stop them is the sheer dead weight of the 
columns in front. To the French the exploit 
of the 9th Lancers, already described in this 
volume, is the greatest thing in the war. They 
would have died to have accomplished it them- 
selves. The fine heroics of such an exploit 
gives them a crazy delight. Then there are the 
forlorn hopes, the bearing of messages across 
a zone of withering fire, the fights for the col- 
ors. One incident which closely resembles the 
exploit of the Royal Irish Fusiliers is recorded. 
A message had to be borne to another regiment 
and volunteers sprang forward eagerly to the 
call. The enemy's fire was particularly deadly 
at this point, and it seemed impossible for a 



94 TOMMY ATKINS AT WAR 

messenger to get through, but no man hesi- 
tated. The first fell dead before he had trav- 
eled many yards, the second had a leg shot 
off, the third by amazing luck got through 
without a scratch. Deeds of this kind have 
endeared the French soldier to Tommy Atkins 
more than all his extravagant acts of kindness, 
and the sympathetic bond of valor has linked 
them together in the close companionship of 
brothers-in-arms. 

Having shown what the British soldier 
thinks of the French as fighting men, it is pleas- 
ant to turn to our Ally's opinion of Tommy 
Atkins. Here the letters deal in superlatives. 
M. Duchene, French master at Archbishop 
Holgate's School, York, who was wounded 
with his regiment at Verdun, writes in glow- 
ing terms of his comrades' praise. " Ah, those 
English soldiers ! " he says. " In my regiment 
you only hear such expressions as 'Us sont 
magnifiques/ ' lis sont superbs/ ' Quels sol- 
datsl' No better tribute could be given." 
Another Frenchman with the army of the Re- 
public is stirred into this eulogy in a letter 
to a friend in England : " How fine they are, 
how splendidly they behave, these English sol- 
diers ! In their discipline and their respect for 
their officers they are magnificent, and you will 



BROTHERS IN ARMS 95 

never know how much we have applauded 
them." 

Another Frenchman, acting as interpreter 
with a Scottish regiment, relates with amaze- 
ment how the Highlanders go into action, " as 
if they were going to a picnic, with laughing 
eyes and, whenever possible, with a cigarette 
between their lips. Their courage is a mixture 
of imperturbability and tenacity. One must 
have seen their immovable calm, their heroic 
sang-froid, under the rain of bullets to do it 
justice." Then he goes on to describe how a 
handful of Scots were selected to hold back 
a large body of Germans in a village to enable 
the main body of the British to retire in good 
order. They took up a position in the first 
house they came to and fired away at the in- 
vaders, who rained bullets on the building. 
Some of the gallant little party fell, but the 
others kept up the fight. Then there came 
a pause in the attack, the German fire ceased, 
the enemy was seeking a more sheltered posi- 
tion. During this brief respite the sergeant 
in command of the Scots surveyed the building 
they had entered. It was a small grocer's shop, 
and on an upper shelf he found a few packets 
of chocolate. " Here, lads," he shouted, 
" whoever kills his man gets a bit o' this." 



96 TOMMY ATKINS AT WAR 

The firing began again, and as each marksman 
succeeded, the imperturbable Scot shouted 
" Got him," and handed over the prize amid 
roars of laughter. " Alas," comments the nar- 
rator, " there were few prize-winners who lived 
to taste their reward." 

The same eulogist, whose narrative was ob- 
tained by Reuter's correspondent, also speaks 
of the fastidious Scot's preoccupations. He 
has two — to be able to shave and to have tea. 
" No danger," the Frenchman declares, " de- 
ters them from their allegiance to the razor 

and the teapot. At , in the department 

of the Nord, I heard a British officer of high 
rank declare with delicious calm between two 
attacks on the town : * Gentlemen, it was 
nothing. Let's go and have tea.' Meanwhile 
his men took advantage of the brief respite to 
crowd round the pump, where, producing soap 
and strop, they proceeded to shave minutely 
and conscientiously with little bits of broken 
glass serving as mirrors." 

The same sense of order and method also 
struck another Frenchman, who speaks of the 
" amazing Englishmen," who carry everything 
with them, and are never in want of anything, 
not even of sleep ! 

Certainly there is much truth in these trib- 
utes to the British military organization, but 



BROTHERS IN ARMS 97 

that is another story and for another chapter. 
The opinion of an Enghsh cavalry officer, how- 
ever, may be quoted as to the relative merits 
of the French and English horses. " The 
French horses," he writes, " are awful. They 
look after them so badly. They all say, * What 
lovely horses you have,' to us, and they do look 
fine beside theirs, but we look after ours so 
well. We always dismount and feed them on 
all occasions with hay and wheat found on the 
farms and in stacks in the fields, also clover. 
The French never do." 

As a result of these observations the French 
appear to have been applying themselves to 
the study of the British fighting force. " I 
know for a fact," says Trooper G. Douglas, 
" that French officers have been moving 
amongst us studying our methods. The French 
Tommies try to copy us a lot, and they like, 
when they have time, to stroll into our lines for 
a chat or a game; but it's precious little time 
there is for that now." 

But it is in character and temperament that 
the chief differences of the allies lie. " Briga- 
dier " Mary Murray, who went to the front 
with other members of the Salvation Army, 
records a conversation she had with a French 
soldier over a cup of coffee. " Ah," he said, 
" we lose heavily, we French. We haven't the 



98 TOMMY ATKINS AT WAR 

patience of the English. They are fine and 
can wait : we must rush ! " And yet Tommy 
Atkins can do a bit of rushing too. Private 
R. Duffy, of the Rifle Brigade, sends home 
a Hvely account of the defense of the Marne 
in which a mixed force of British and French 
was engaged. The object to be achieved was 
to drive back the Germans who were attempt- 
ing to cross the river. " About half a mile 
from the banks/' writes Duffy, *' we came out 
from a wood to find a French infantry bat- 
talion going across in the same direction. We 
didn't want to be behind, so we put our best 
foot forward, and one of the most exciting 
races you ever saw followed. We got in first 
by a head, as you might say, and we were just 
in time to tackle a mob of Germans heading 
for the crossing in disorder. We went at them 
with the bayonet, but they didn't seem to have 
the least heart for fighting. Some of them 
flung themselves in the stream and tried to 
swim to safety, but they were heavily ac- 
coutered and worn out so they didn't go very 
far. Of about three hundred men who tried 
this not more than half a dozen succeeded in 
reaching the other bank." 

In spite of all the hatreds the war has en- 
gendered — and one of the Royal Lancasters 
declares that the sign manual of friendship 



BROTHERS IN ARMS 99 

between the French and the English soldier is 
'^ a cross on the throat indicating their wish 
to the Kaiser " — there is still room for pas-' 
sages of fine sympathy and chivalry. One 
young French lieutenant distinguished himself 
by carrying a wounded Uhlan to a place of 
safety under a heavy German fire, English sol- 
diers have shown equal generosity and kindness 
to injured captives, and the tributes to heroic 
and patient nurses shine forth in letters of gold 
upon the dark pages of this tragic history. 
Here is a touching letter from one of the 
King's Own Royal Lancasters. " In one hos- 
pital, which was a church," he writes, " there 
was a young French girl helping to bandage 
us up. How she stood it I don't know. There 
were some awful sights, but she never quailed 
— just a sad sweet smile for every one. If 
ever any one deserved a front seat in Heaven 
this young angel did. God bless her ! She has 
the prayers and all the love the remnants of 
the Fourth Division can give her." 

And another pretty little tribute is paid to 
the kindness of a French lady to four English 
soldiers billeted at her house. " She was won- 
drous kind," writes one of the grateful sol- 
diers, " and when we left for the front Madame 
and her mother sobbed and wept as if we had 
been their own sons." 



lOO TOMMY ATKINS AT WAR 



XI 

ATKINS AND THE ENEMY 

IN one of his fine messages from the front. 
Sir John French, whom the New York 
World has described as the " best of war 
correspondents," referred to the British soldier 
as " a difficult person to impress or depress." 
He meant, of course, that it was no use trying 
to terrify Tommy Atkins. Nothing will do 
that. His stupendous sense of humor carries 
him, smiling, through every emergency. 

But Atkins is a keen observer, and he takes 
on very clear and vivid impressions of men 
and affairs. He hates compromises and quali- 
fications, and just lets you have his opinion — 
" biff ! " as one officer expresses it. 

" Bill and I have been thinking it over," 
says' one letter from the trenches, " and we've 
come to the conclusion that the German army 
system is rotten." There you have the con- 
centrated wisdom of hundreds of soldier critics 
who talk of the Kaiser's great military machine 



ATKINS AND THE ENEMY loi 

as they know it from intimate contact with 
the fighting force it propels. They admit its 
mechanical perfection; it is the human factor 
that breaks down. 

Nothing has impressed Tommy Atkins more 
than the lack of morale in the German soldiers. 
"Oh, they are brave enough, poor devils; 
but they've got no heart in the fighting," he 
says. That is absolutely true. Hundreds of 
thousands of them have no notion of what 
they are fighting for. Some of the prisoners 
declared that when they left the garrisons they 
were " simply told they were going to ma- 
neuvers " ; " others," says a Royal Artillery- 
man, " had no idea they were fighting the Eng- 
lish " ; according to a Highland officer, sur- 
rendering Germans said their fellows had been 
assured that " America and Japan were fight- 
ing on their side, and that another Boer war 
was going on " ; and a final illusion was dis- 
pelled when those captured by the Royal Irish 
were told that the civil war in Ireland had been 
"put off!" 

It is not only that the men lack this moral 
preparation for war. Their system of fighting 
is demoralizing. " They come on in close for- 
mation, thousands of them, just like sheep be- 
ing driven to the slaughter," is the description 
that nine soldiers out of every ten give of 



102 TOMMY ATKINS AT WAR 



the Germans going into action. " We just 
mow them down in heaps," says an artillery- 
man. " Lord, even a woman couldn't miss 
hitting them," is the comment from the In- 
fantry. And as for the cavalry : " Well, we 
just makes holes in them," adds one of the 
Dragoons. At first they didn't take cover at 
all, but just marched into action with their 
drums beating and bands playing, " like a 
blooming parade," as Atkins puts it. After 
the first slaughter, however, they shrank from 
the attack, and there is ample evidence of eye- 
witnesses that the German infantry often had 
to be lashed into battle by their ofiicers. " I saw 
a colonel striking his own men with his sword 
to prevent them running away," is one of the 
many statements. Revolvers, too, were freely 
used for the same purpose. 

But, generally speaking, there is iron disci- 
pline in the Kaiser's army. The men obey their 
officers implicitly. Trooper E. Tugwell, of the 
Berwicks, tells this little story of a cavalry 
charge from which a German infantry regiment 
bolted — all but one company, whose officers 
ordered them to stand : " They faced round 
without attempting to fire a shot, and stood 
there like statues to meet the onslaught of our 
men. Our chaps couldn't help admiring their 
fine discipline, but there's not much room for 



ATKINS AND THE ENEMY 103 

sentiment in war, and we rode at them with the 
lance, and swept them away." " They are big 
fellows, and, in a way, brave," writes Private 
P. Case of the King's (Liverpool) Regiment, 
describing one of their attacks; "they must 
be brave, or they would not have kept ad- 
vancing when they saw their dead so thick 
that they were practically standing up." 
" Their officers simply won't let them surren- 
der," says another writer, " and so long as 
there's an officer about they'll stand like sheep 
and be slaughtered by the thousand. The es- 
sential difference between the German soldiers 
and our own is in the officering and training, 
and it is admirably expressed by Private Bur- 
rell, Northumberland Fusiliers. ^' We are led ; 
they are driven," * is Burrell's epigram. 

According to other letter writers, the Ger- 
man soldiers are absolutely tyrannized over by 
their officers. They are horribly ill-used, 
badly fed,t overworked, constantly under the 
lash. " They hate their officers like poison, 
and fear them ten times more than they fear 
death," says Private Martin King. " Most of 
the prisoners that I've seen are only fit for 

* " The German officers are a rum lot," writes Ser- 
geant W. Holmes ; " they lead from the rear all the 
time." 

t " When they are working hardest their rations 
would not do for a tom-tit," says Sergeant J. Baker. 



I04 TOMMY ATKINS AT WAR 

the hospital, and many of them will never be 
fit for anything else this side of the grave. 
Their officers don't seem to have any consid- 
eration for the men at all, and we have a sus- 
picion that the heavy losses of German officers 
aren't all due to our fire. There was one 
brought in who had certainly been hit by one 
of their own bullets, and in the back too.*' 
Other soldiers say the same, and add that if 
it weren't for dread of their officers the Ger- 
mans would surrender wholesale. " Take the 
officers away, and their regiments fall to 
pieces," is the dictum of one of the Somerset 
Light Infantry, " and that's why we always 
pick off the German officers first." 

There is not the slightest divergence of opin- 
ion in the British ranks as to the German in- 
fantry fire. " Their shooting is laughable," 
" they couldn't hit a haystack in an entry," and 
" asses with the rifle," are how our men dis- 
pose of it. The Germans fire recklessly with 
their rifles planted against their hips, while 
Tommy Atkins takes cool and steady aim, and 
lets them have it from the shoulder. *' We 
just knocked them over like nine-pins," a High- 
lander explained. As to the German cavalry, 
one Tommy expressed the prevailing opinion 
to nicety. " I don't want to be nasty," he said, 
" but what we all pray for is just half-an-hour 



ATKINS AND THE ENEMY 105 

each way with three times our number of 
Uhlans/' 

When it comes to artillery, however, Atkins 
has nothing but praise for the enemy. Their 
aeroplanes flutter over the British positions and 
give the gunners the exact range, and then 
they let go. " I can only figure it out as be- 
ing something worse than the mouth of hell," 
declares Private John Stiles, ist Gloucesters, 
and it may be here left at that, as the devasta- 
ting effects of artillery have already been dealt 
with in a previous chapter. One thing which 
has puzzled and sometimes baffled our men is 
the way the Germans conceal their guns. They 
display extraordinary ingenuity in this direc- 
tion, hiding them inside haystacks, in leaf-cov- 
ered trenches, and sometimes, unhappily, in 
Red Cross wagons. 

Stories of German treachery are abundant, 
and official reports have dealt with such shame- 
ful practises as driving prisoners and refugees 
in front of them when attacking, abusing the 
protection of the White Flag, and wearing Red 
Cross brassards in action. The men have 
their own stories to tell. An Irish Guardsman 
records a white flag incident during the fight- 
ing on the Aisne : " Coldstreamers, Con- 
naughts, Grenadiers, and Irish Guards were 
all in this affair, and the fight was going on 



io6 TOMMY ATKINS AT WAR 

well. Suddenly the Germans in front of us 
raised the white flag, and we ceased firing and 
went up to take our prisoners. The moment 
we got into the open, fierce fire from concealed 
artillery was turned on us, and the surrendered 
Germans picked up their rifles and pelted Us 
with their fire. It was horrible. They trapped 
us completely, and very few escaped." The 
German defense of these white flag incidents 
was given to Trooper G. Douglas by a prisoner 
who declared that the men were quite innocent 
of intention to deceive, but that whenever their 
officers saw the white flag they hauled it down, 
and compelled them to fight. 

Many British soldiers suffered from the 
treachery of the Germans in wearing English 
and French uniforms, and their letters home 
are full of indignation at the practises of the 
enemy. It was in the fighting following such 
a ruse at Landrecies that the Honorable 
Archer- Windsor-Clive, of the Coldstream 
Guards, met his death. " Another time," an 
artillery officer relates, " they ran into one of 
our regiments with some of their officers 
dressed in French uniforms. They said * Ne 
tirez-pas, nous sommes Frangais,' and asked 
for the C.O. He came up, and then they 
calmly blew his brains out ! " A similar act of 
treachery is recorded by Lieutenant Oswald 



ATKINS AND THE ENEMY 107 

Anne, R.A., in a letter published in the Leeds 
Mercury: *^ At one place where the Berkshire 
Regiment was on guard a German force arrived 
attired in French uniforms. To keep up the 
illusion, a German called out in French from 
the wire entanglements that they wanted to in- 
terview the commanding officer. A major of 
the Berkshires who spoke French, went for- 
ward, and was immediately shot down. This 
sort of thing is of daily occurrence." Lieuten- 
ant Edgcumbe, son of Sir Robert Edgcumbe, 
Newquay, tells of another instance of treachery 
in which British uniforms were used, and de- 
clares, in common with many other officers, 
that he " will never again respect the Germans ; 
they have no code of honor! " 

They strip the uniforms from the dead, come 
on in night attacks shouting " Vive, TAngle- 
terre ! " and sound the British bugle-call '' Cease 
iire " in the thickest of the fight. Twice in 
one engagement the Germans stopped the 
Brrtish fire by the mean device of the bugle, 
and twice they charged desperately upon the 
silent ranks. But in nearly every case their 
punishment for these violations of the laws of 
civilized warfare has been swift and terrible, 
and no mercy has been shown them. 

Charges of barbarity are also common in 
letters from the battlefields. One officer, who 



io8 TOMMY ATKINS AT WAR 

says he " never before realized what an awful 
thing war is," writes : " We have with us in 
the trenches three girls who came to us for 
protection. One had no clothes on, having 
been outraged by the Germans. I have given 
her my shirt and divided my rations among 
them. In consequence I feel rather hungry, 
having had nothing for thirty-two hours, ex- 
cept some milk chocolate. Another poor girl 
has just come in, having had both her breasts 
cut off. Luckily I caught the Uhlan officer in 
the act, and with a rifle at 300 yards killed 
him. And now she is with us, but, poor girl, 
I am afraid she will die. She is very pretty 
and only about nineteen." "^ 

Captain Roffey, Lancashire Fusiliers, tells 
how he was found wounded, and handed over 
his revolver to the Germans, whereupon his 
captor used it to shoot him again, and left him 
for dead. There is no end to the stories of 
this kind, and one of the wounded vehemently 
declared that the " devilry of the Germans can- 
not be exaggerated." 

There are others amongst the wounded how- 
ever, who have received nothing but kindness 
from the enemy. Lieutenant H. G. W. Irwin, 
South Lancashire Regiment, pays a tribute to 

* This letter was written to the son of a London vicar, 
and published in The Times, Sept. 12th, 1914. 



ATKINS AND THE ENEMY 109 

the treatment he met with in the German lines ; 
Captain J. B. George, Royal Irish, " could not 
have been better treated had he been the Crown 
Prince ; " and one of the Officer's Special Re- 
serve says the stories of " brutality are only 
exceptions, and there are exceptions in every 
army." 

And here it is worth quoting a happy ex- 
ample of German chivalry. It is taken from 
one of Sir John French's messages. A small 
party of French under a non-commissioned of- 
ficer was cut off and surrounded. After a 
desperate resistance it was decided to go on 
fighting to the end. Finally, the N.C.O. and 
one man only were left, both being wounded. 
The Germans came up and shouted to them to 
lay down their arms. The German comman- 
der, however, signed to them to keep their arms, 
and then asked for permission to shake hands 
with the wounded non-commissioned officer, 
who was carried off on his stretcher with his 
rifle by his side. 

After this account of what British soldiers 
think of the enemy, it is interesting to read 
what is the German opinion of Tommy Atkins. 
Evidently the fighting men do not share the 
Kaiser's estimate of " French's contemptible lit- 
tle army." Three very interesting letters, writ- 
ten by German officers, and found in the pos- 



no TOMMY ATKINS AT WAR 

session of the captives, were published in an 
official despatch from General Headquarters. 
Here are extracts from each : 

( 1 ) " With the English troops we have 
great difficulties. They have a queer way 
of causing losses to the enemy. They 
make good trenches, in which they wait 
patiently. They carefully m.easure the 
ranges for their rifle fire, and then they 
open a truly hellish fire on the unsuspect- 
ing cavalry. This was the reason that we 
had such heavy losses. 

(2) "The EngHsh are very brave and 
fight to the last. . . . One of our com- 
panies has lost 130 men out of 240." 

(3) " We are fighting with the English 
Guards, Highlanders and Zouaves. The 
losses on both sides have been enormous. 
The English are marvelously trained in 
making use of the ground. One never 
sees them, and one is constantly under 
fire. Two days ago, early in the morning, 
we were attacked by immensely superior 
English forces (one brigade and two bat- 
talions) and were turned out of our posi- 
tions. The fellows took five guns from 
us. It was a tremendous hand-to-hand 
fight. How I escaped myself I am not 



ATKINS AND THE ENEMY iii 

clear. . . . If we first beat the English, the 
French resistance will soon be broken." 

The admissions of prisoners that the Ger- 
mans were amazed at the fighting qualities of 
the British soldier, and had acquired a whole- 
some dread of meeting him at close quarters, 
may have been colored by a trifling disposition 
to be amiable in their captivity; but letters 
such as those just quoted are honest statements 
for private reading in Germany, and were never 
intended to fall into British hands. 

Although Tommy Atkins makes occasional 
jocular allusions to the enemy as " Sausages " 
there is no doubt that he considers the German 
army a very substantial fighting force. " The 
German is not a toy terrier, but a bloodhound 
thirsting for blood," is one description of him; 
" getting to Berlin isn't going to be a cheap 
excursion," says another; and, to quote a 
third, " in spite of all we say about the Teuton, 
he is taking his punishment well, and we've got 
a big job on our hands." 



112 TOMMY ATKINS AT WAR 




XII 

THE WAR IN THE AIR 

R. H. G. WELLS did not long antici- 
pate the sensations of an aerial conflict 
between the nations. Six years after 
the publication of his War in the Air the thing 
has become an accomplished fact, and for the 
first time in history the great nations are fight- 
ing for the mastery not only upon land but in 
the air and under the sea. 

Fine as have been the adventures of airmen 
in times of peace, and startling as spectators 
have found the acrobatic performance of 
" looping the loop," these tricks of the air ap- 
pear feeble exploits compared with the new- 
sensation of an actual battle in the clouds. 
Soldiers, scribbling their letters in the trenches, 
have been fascinated by the sudden appearance 
at dusk of a hostile aeroplane, and have gazed 
with pleasurable agitation as out of the dim, 
mysterious distance a British aviator shot up 
in pursuit. 



THE WAR IN THE AIR 113 

" It is thrilling and magnificent," says one 
officer, " and I was filled with rapture at the 
spectacle of the first fight in the clouds. The 
German maneuvered for position and prepared 
to attack, but our fellow was too quick for him, 
and darted into a higher plane. The German 
tried to circle round and follow, and so in 
short spurts they fought for mastery, firing 
at each other all the time, the machines sway- 
ing and oscillating violently. The British air- 
man, however, well maintained his ascendency. 
Then suddenly there was a pause, the Ger- 
man machine began to reel, the wounded pilot 
had lost control, and with a dive the aeroplane 
came to earth half a mile away. Our man 
hovered about for a time, and then calmly 
glided away over the German lines to recon- 
noiter." 

Nothing could excel the skill and daring 
shown by the men of the Royal Flying Corps. 
They stop at nothing. Some of their machines 
have been so badly damaged by rifle and shell 
fire that on descending they have had to be 
destroyed. 

" Fired at constantly both by friend and 
foe," Sir John French writes, " and not hesi- 
tating to fly in every kind of weather, they 
have remained undaunted throughout." The 
highest praise is bestowed upon Brigadier-Gen- 



114 TOMMY ATKINS AT WAR 

eral Sir David Henderson, in command of the 
Corps, for the high state of efficiency this 
young branch of the service has attained. It 
has been on its trial, and has already covered 
itself with glory. General Joffre, the French 
Commander-in-Chief, has sent a special mes- 
sage singling out the British Flying Corps 
" most particularly " for his highest eulogies. 
Several English airmen have already been made 
Chevaliers of the Legion of Honor. 

That the nervous strain of aerial warfare is 
severe is shown by expression in several air- 
men's letters. Not only have they to light 
their man, but they have to manage their ma- 
chines at the same time. This means that if 
an airman ascends alone he is unable to use 
a rifle and must depend for attack on revolver 
fire only. This is illustrated by a passage in 
one of the official reports : " Unfortunately 
one of our aviators, who has been particularly 
active in annoying the enemy by dropping 
bombs, was wounded in a duel in the air. Be- 
ing alone on a single-seated monoplane, he 
was not able to use a rifle, and whilst circling 
above a German two-seater in an endeavor to 
get within pistol shot was hit by the observer 
of the latter, who was armed with a rifle. He 
managed to fly back over our lines, and by 
great good luck descended close to a motor 



THE WAR IN THE AIR 115 

ambulance, which at once conveyed him to hos- 
pital." 

This appears to be only the second instance 
recorded during the first two months of the 
war in which our airmen have suffered mishap, 
yet half-a-dozen German machines have been 
brought down and their navigators either killed 
or wounded. Private Harman, King's Royal 
Rifles, describes an exciting pursuit in which 
a German aeroplane was captured. The Brit- 
ish aviator, who had the advantage in speed 
and was a good revolver shot, evidently greatly 
distressed the fugitive, for, surrendered, he 
planed down in good order, and on landing was 
found to be dead. 

According to an officer in the Royal Flying 
Corps the worst aerial experience in war is to 
go up as a passenger. " It is * loathly,' " he 
says, " to sit still helplessly and be fired at." 
In one flight as a spectator his machine was 
" shelled and shot at about a hundred times, 
but luckily only thirteen shots went through 
the planes and neither of us was hit." An in- 
teresting account of a battle seen from the 
clouds is given in a letter published by The 

Times. " I was up with for an evening 

reconnaissance over this huge battle. I bet it 
will ever be remembered as the biggest in his- 
tory. It extends from Compiegne right away 



ii6 TOMMY ATKINS AT WAR 

east to Belf ort. Can you imagine such a sight ? 
We flew at 5 p.m. over the line, and at that 
time the British Army guns (artillery, heavy 
and field) all opened fire together. We flew 
at 5,000 feet and saw a sight which I hope 
it will never be my lot to see again. The 
woods and hills were literally cut to ribbons 
all along the south of Laon. It was marvelous 
watching hundreds of shells bursting below one 
to right and left for miles, and then to see the 
Germans replying." 

Another officer of the Flying Corps describes 
his impression of the Battle of Mons, seen from 
a height of 5,000 feet. British shells were 
bursting like little bits of cotton wool over the 
German batteries. A German attack devel- 
oped, and the airman likens the enemy's ad- 
vance formation to a " large human tadpole " 
— a long dense column with the head spread 
out in front. 

Evidently the anti-aircraft guns, though 
rather terrifying, do very little damage. Air- 
men have had shells burst all round them for 
a long time without being hurt. Of course 
they are careful to fly at a high altitude. 
When struck by shrapnel, however, an aero- 
plane (one witness says) ** just crumples up 
like a broken egg." On the other hand, bombs 
dropped from aeroplanes do great damage, if 



THE WAR IN THE AIR 117 

properly directed. A petrol bomb was dropped 
by an English airman at night into a German 
bivouac with alarming results, and another 
thrown at a cavalry column struck an ammu- 
nition wagon and killed fifteen men. A French 
airman wiped out a cavalry troop with a bomb, 
and the effect of the steel arrows used by 
French aviators is known to be damaging. 
The German bombs thrown by Zeppelins and 
Taube aeroplanes on Antwerp and Paris do 
not appear to have much disturbed either the 
property or equanimity of the inhabitants. So 
far as aerial excursions are concerned the most 
brilliant exploit is undoubtedly that of Flight- 
Lieutenant C. H. Collet, of the Naval Wing 
of the British Flying Corps, who, with a fleet 
of five aeroplanes swept across the German 
frontier and, hovering over Diisseldorf, 
dropped three bombs with unerring effect upon 
the Zeppelin sheds. 

Bomb-dropping, however, has not been in- 
dulged in to any great extent by either of the 
combatants, and the chief use to which air 
machines have been put is that of scouting. 
The Germans use them largely for range find- 
ing, and they seem to prove a very accurate 
guide to the gunners. " We were advancing 
on the German right and doing splendidly," 
writes Private Boardman (Bradford) " when 



ii8 TOMMY ATKINS AT WAR 

we saw an aeroplane hover right over our 
heads, and by some signaling give the German 
artillery the range. The aviator had hardly 
gone when we were riddled with shot and 
shell." A sergeant of the 21st Lancers says 
the signaling is done by dropping a kind of 
silver ball or disc from the aeroplanes, and the 
Germans watch for this and locate our position 
to a nicety at once. 

As scouts — and that, meantime, is the real 
practical purpose of aeroplanes in war — - the 
British aviators have done wonders. Their ma- 
chines are lighter and faster than those of the 
Germans, and as they make a daily average 
of nine reconnaissance flights of over 100 miles 
each it will be understood that they keep the 
Intelligence Department well supplied with ac- 
curate information of the enemy's movements. 

French airmen are particularly daring both 
in reconnaissance and in flight, and the well- 
known M. Vedrines, whose achievements are 
familiar to English people, has already brought 
down three German aeroplanes. In one en- 
counter he fought in a Bleriot machine carry- 
ing a mitrailleuse, and the enemy dropped, rid- 
dled with bullets. So completely have some 
of the aeroplanes been perforated, without mis- 
hap, says the Daily Telegraph's war correspond- 
ent, that the pilots have found a new game. 



THE WAR IN THE AIR 119 



Each evening after their flights they count the 
number of bullet holes in their machine, mark- 
ing each with a circle in red chalk, so that none 
may be included in the next day's total. The 
record appears to be thirty-seven holes in one 
day, and the pilot in question claims to be 
the " record man du monde." 

Zeppelins have not maintained their reputa- 
tion in this war. One sailed over Sir John 
French's headquarters and indicated the posi- 
tion to the enemy, but they are no match for 
the swift and agile aeroplanes. A wounded 
dispatch carrier saw one English and two 
French machines attack a Zeppelin and bring 
it down instantly. A half hour's fight with 
another is recorded; among the captured pas- 
sengers in this, according to a soldier's letter, 
was a boy of nine. Private Drury, Coldstream 
Guards, saw one huge German aeroplane 
brought to earth, three of its officers being 
killed by rifle fire and one badly injured. 

There is something strange, mysterious, and 
insubstantial about the war in the air that the 
soldiers do not yet feel or comprehend. Often 
the feverish activity of aircraft at a high alti- 
tude is known only to a very few practised 
observers. A gentle purring in the air and 
the scarcely audible ping-pong of distant re- 
volver shots may represent a fierce duel in the 



120 TOMMY ATKINS AT WAR 

clouds, and often the soldiers are unaware of 
the presence of a hostile airman until the pro- 
jectiles aimed at them burst in the trenches. 
One evening, a graphic official message states, 
the atmosphere was so still and clear that only 
those specially on the lookout detected the en- 
emy's aeroplanes, and when the bombs burst 
" the puffs of smoke from the detonating shell 
hung in the air for minutes on end like balls 
of fleecy cottonwool before they slowly ex- 
panded and were dissipated." 

Of course, the tactics adopted for dealing 
with hostile aircraft are to attack them in- 
stantly with one or more British machines, and 
as in this respect the British Flying Corps has 
established an individual ascendency, Sir John 
French proudly declares that " something in 
the direction of the mastery of the air has al- 
ready been gained." 



TOMMY AND HIS RATIONS 121 



XIII 
TOMMY AND HIS RATIONS 

A MEDICAL officer at the front declares 
that the British Expeditionary Force 
is, without doubt, the '* best fed Army 
that has ever taken the field." That is a sweep- 
ing statement, but it is true. It is confirmed 
over and over again in the letters of Tommy 
Atkins. It is acknowledged by the French. 
Even the most sullen German prisoners agree 
with it. There has been universal praise for 
the quality and abundance of the food, and the 
general arrangements for the comfort of the 
British soldier. 

One French description of the feeding says 
that the English troops " live like fighting 
cocks," another marvels at " the stupendous 
pieces of meat, and bread heavy with butter 
and jam," a third speaks of the " amazing 
Tommees " who " carry everything in their 
pockets and forget nothing at all." And so 
on. 



122 TOMMY ATKINS AT WAR 

But the most remarkable tribute of all to 
the perfect working of the transport and supply 
service is that given by the British officers and 
men themselves. Captain Guy Edwards, Cold- 
stream Guards, says : " They have fed our 
troops wonderfully regularly and well up to 
the present; we have had no sickness at all, 
and every one is in splendid spirits." In an- 
other letter an officer refers to the generosity 
of the rations. " In addition to meat and 
bread (or biscuit)," he says, "we get J41b. 
jam, ^Ib. bacon, 30Z. cheese, tea, etc., while 
the horses have had a good supply of oats and 
hay." During the whole of the long retreat 
from Mons, says an officer of the Berkshires, 
" there was only one day when we missed our 
jam rations! " 

And it is the same with the men. Here are 
some brief extracts from their letters : 

Private , 20th Field Ambulance: 

" Our food supply is magnificent. We 
have everything we want and food to 
spare. Bacon and tomatoes is a common 
breakfast for us." 

Driver Finch : " I am in the best of 
health, with the feeding and the open-air 
life. The stars have been our covering 
for the last few weeks." 

Sergeant, Infantry Regiment : " The 



TOMMY AND HIS RATIONS 123 



arrangements are very good — no worry 
or hitch anywhere ; it is all wonderful." 

Cavalryman : " We live splendidly, be- 
ing even able to supplement our generous 
rations with eggs, milk and vegetables as 
we go through the villages." 

Gunner : " Having the time of my 
hfe." 
Of course, the exigencies of war may not al- 
ways permit of the perfect working of the 
supply machine. Already there have been 
many hardships to be endured. Incessant 
fighting does not give the men time for proper 
meals, sleep is either cut out altogether or re- 
duced to an occasional couple of hours, heavy 
rains bring wet clothing and wetter resting 
places, boots wear out with prolonged march- 
ing, and men have to go for days and even 
weeks unwashed, unshaven, and without even 
a chance of getting out of their clothes for a 
single hour. 

The officers suffer just as much as the men. 
After a fortnight or three weeks at the front 
one cavalry officer wrote that he " had not 
taken his clothes off since he left the Curragh." 
** For five days," another says, '' I never took 
of¥ my boots, even to sleep, and for two days 
I did not even wash my hands or face. For 
three days and nights I got just four hours' 



124 TOMMY ATKINS AT WAR 

sleep. The want of sleep was the one thing 
we felt." Sleep, indeed, is just the last thing 
the officers get. Brigadier-General Sir Philip 
Chetwode outlines his daily program as " work 
from 4 a.m. to ii p.m., then writing and prep- 
arations until 4 a.m. again." To make matters 
worse just at the start of the famous cavalry 
charge which brought Sir Philip such distinc- 
tion, his pack-horse bolted into the German 
lines carrying all his luggage, and leaving him 
nothing but a toothbrush ! 

One of the Dorsets' officers reports that 
" owing to the continuous fighting the * even- 
ing meal ' has become conspicuous by its ab- 
sence," but in spite of having carried a lib. 
tin of compressed beef and a few biscuits about 
with them for several days they are all " most 
beastly fit on it." " No one seems any the 
worse, and I feel all the fitter," writes an of- 
ficer of a Highland Regiment, " after long 
marches in the rain going to bed as wet as a 
Scotch mist." 

The men are just as cheerful as their officers. 
*' You can't expect a blooming Ritz Hotel in 
the firing line," is how a jocular Cockney puts 
it. An artilleryman says they would fare 
sumptuously if it weren't for the German shells 
at meal times : " one shell, for instance, shat- 
tered our old porridge pot before we'd had a 



TOMMY AND HIS RATIONS 125 

spoonful out of it ! " Lieutenant Jardine, a 
son of Sir John Jardine, M.P., relates this same 
incident. Gunner Prince, R.RA., has a little 
joke about the sleeping quarters : " Just going 
to bed. Did I say bed? I mean under the 
gun with an overcoat for a blanket." There 
is no sort of grumbling at all. As Lieutenant 
Stringer, of the 5th Lancers, expresses it, the 
A.S.C. " manage things very well, and our 
motto is * always merry and bright.' " 

Occasionally, when there is a lull in the oper- 
ations, the men dine gloriously. Stories are 
told of gargantuan feeds — of majestic stews 
that can be scented even in the German lines. 
Occasionally, too, there is the capture of a 
banquet prepared for the enemy's officers as 
the following message from the Standard illus- 
trates : " A small party of our cavalry were 
out on reconnaissance work, scouring woods 
and searching the countryside. Just about 
dusk a hail of bullets came upon our party 
from a small spinney of fir trees on the side 
of a hill. We instantly wheeled off as if we 
were retreating, but, in fact, we merely pre- 
tended to retire and galloped round across 
plowed land to the other side of the spinney, 
fired on the men, and they mounted their 
horses and flew like lightning out of their 
' supper room.' They left a finely cooked re- 



126 TOMMY ATKINS AT WAR 

past of beef-steaks, onions and fried potatoes 
all ready and done to a turn, with about fifty 
bottles of Pilsner lager beer, which was an ac- 
ceptable relish to our meal. Ten of our men 
gave chase and returned for an excellent feed." 

Another amusing capture is that of an enter- 
prising Tommy who possessed himself of a 
German officer's bearskin, a cap, helmet, and 
Jaeger sleeping bag. He is now regarded as 
the " toff of the regiment." The luxury of a 
bath was indulged in by a company of Berk- 
shires at one encampment. Forty wine barrels 
nearly full of water were discovered here, and 
the thirsty men were about to drink it when 
their officer stopped them. " Well," said one, 
" if it's not good enough to drink it'll do to 
wash in," and with one accord they stripped 
and jumped into the barrels! Nothing has 
been more notable than Tommy's desire for 
cleanliness and tidiness. It is something fine 
and healthy about the British soldier. One 
wounded man, driven up to a hospital, limped 
with difficulty to a barber's shop for a shave 
before he would enter the building. " I 
couldn't face the doctors and nurses looking 
like I was," he told the ambulance attendant. 

Of all the soldiers' wants the most impera- 
tive appears to be the harmless necessary ciga- 
rette. All their letters clamor for tobacco in 



TOMMY AND HIS RATIONS 127 

that form. " We can't get a decent smoke 
here/' says one writer. An army airman 
" simply craves for cigarettes and matches." 
From a cavalryman comes the appeal that a few 
boxes of cigarettes and some thick chocolate 
would be luxuries. " Just fancy," to quote 
from another letter, " one cigarette among ten 
of us — hardly one puff a-piece." 

In the French hospitals the wounded men 
are being treated with the greatest kindness, 
and during convalescence are being loaded with 
luxuries. " Spoilt darlings," one Scottish 
nurse in Paris says about them, ** but who could 
help spoiling them? " They are so happy and 
cheerful, so grateful for every little service, so 
eager to return to the firing line in order to 
"get the war over and done with." "We've 
promised to be home by Christmas," they say, 
" and that turkey and plum-pudding will be 
spoilt if we don't turn up." 

Home by Christmas! That is Tommy At- 
kins' idea of a " Non-stop run to Berlin " — 
the facetious notice he printed in chalk on 
the troop trains at Boulogne as, singing " It's a 
long way to Tipperary," he rolled away to the 
greatest battles that have ever seared the face 
of Europe. 

VAIL-BALLOU CO., BINGHAMTON AND NEW YORK 




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